Read the excerpts from The Namesake.
Excerpt 1: He is afraid to be Nikhil, someone he doesn’t know. Who doesn’t know him. His parents tell him that they each have two names, too, as do all their Bengali friends in America, and all their relatives in Calcutta. It’s a part of growing up, they tell him, part of being a Bengali.
Excerpt 2: It is nothing like the schooling Gogol’s parents have known, fountain pens and polished black shoes and notebooks and good names and sir or madam at a tender age. Here the only official ritual is pledging allegiance first thing in the morning to the American flag.
Which statement best tells how the conflict in the first excerpt is similar to the conflict in the second excerpt?
A. Gogol’s experience of growing up in an American culture conflicts with his parents’ experience of growing up in India.

B. Gogol’s desire to have two names like his parents conflicts with his parents’ desire for him to adopt American customs.

C. Gogol’s fear of attending American school conflicts with his parents’ excitement about the new experiences he will have.

D. Gogol’s wish to return to India where his relatives live conflicts with his parents’ wishes to start a new life in America.

The legend of king arthur and the basis of its factuality have drawn a good deal of attention for hundreds of years, from both popular culture as well as academic scholars. consider, now, the consequences of a definitive resolution to the issue of his existence. do you feel that not knowing in this case is perhaps preferred to knowing? what other mysteries might we as a culture prefer to remain unsolved? why?

Read the two conclusions to cinderella. conclusion a: “this is not the true bride,” said he to the father; “have you no other daughters? ” then cinderella took her shoe off, and put on the golden slipper, and it fitted as if it had been made for her. and when he drew near the prince knew her, and said, “this is the right bride.” then he took cinderella on his horse and rode away. conclusion b: he obliged cinderella to sit down, and, putting the slipper to her little foot, he found it went on very easily, and fitted her as if it had been made of wax. the astonishment of her two sisters was great, but it was still greater when cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other slipper and put it on her foot. thereupon, in came her godmother, who, having touched cinderella's clothes with her wand, made them more magnificent than those she had worn before. and now her two sisters found her to be that beautiful lady they had seen at the ball. they threw themselves at her feet to beg pardon for all their ill treatment of her. cinderella took them up, and, as she embraced them, said that she forgave them with all her heart, and begged them to love her always. she was conducted to the young prince, dressed as she was. he thought her more charming than ever, and, a few days after, married her. cinderella, who was as good as she was beautiful, gave her two sisters a home in the palace, and that very same day married them to two great lords of the court. which conclusion to cinderella is stronger? why? conclusion a is stronger because it uses dialogue that readers understand the prince's feelings toward cinderella. conclusion b is stronger because it describes a surprising and positive resolution to the conflict between the characters. conclusion a is stronger because it contains an emotional moment in which cinderella learns something. conclusion b is stronger because it shows that all of the characters changed and got what they deserved.

Match the definition to the word for a better understanding of the paragraph. 1 money does not buy happiness or security. 2john ringling, one of the five brothers of the ringling brothers circus, started out in 1884 with a trained horse and a performing bear. 3for over forty years, he worked hard at the family enterprise, bought up smaller circuses, and imported new acts. 4in the 1920s, he was rated as one of the world's wealthiest men and owned every sizable circus in the country. 5over 5,000 people were on his payroll, and over 240 railroad cars were in his retinue each time the circus moved. 6at the time of his death, however, he was a nervous, unhappy man; he was also bankrupt and beset by lawsuits. 7his carefully built circus empire passed into alien hands. 8all those years of work had turned to dust. 1. business organization alien 2. group beset 3. without funds to pay debts retinue 4. troubled or harassed enterprise 5. strange; belonging to another person, place, country, or thing bankrupt