“The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner 1 The country is India. A colonial official and his wife are giving a large dinner party. They are seated with their guests —army officers, and government attachés1 with their wives, and a visiting American naturalist2 —in their spacious dining room. It has a bare marble floor, open rafters3, and wide glass doors opening onto a veranda4.

2 A spirited discussion springs up between a young girl who insists that women have outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of- a-mouse era and a colonel who says that they haven’t.

3 “A woman’s unfailing reaction in any crisis,” the colonel says, “is to scream. And while a man may feel like it, he has that ounce more of nerve control than a woman has. And that last ounce more is what counts.”

4 The American does not join in the argument but watches the other guests. As he looks, he sees a strange expression come over the face of the hostess. She is staring straight ahead, her muscles contracting slightly. With a slight gesture, she summons the native boy standing behind her chair and whispers to him. The boy’s eyes widen, and he quickly leaves the room.

5 Of the guests, none except the American notices this or sees the boy place a bowl of milk on the veranda just outside the open doors.

6 The American comes to with a start. In India, milk in a bowl means only one thing—bait for a snake. He realizes there must be a cobra in the room. He looks up at the rafters —the likeliest place —but they are bare. Three corners of the room are empty, and in the fourth the servants are waiting to serve the next course. There is only one place left —under the table.

7 His first impulse is to jump back and warn the others, but he knows the commotion would frighten the cobra into striking. He speaks quickly, the tone of his voice so arresting that it sobers everyone.

8 “I want to know just what control everyone at this table has. I will count to three hundred — that’s five minutes —and not one of you is to move a muscle. Those who move will forfeit fifty rupees5. Ready!”

9 The twenty people sit like stone images while he counts. He is saying “two hundred and eighty” when, out of the corner of his eye, he sees the cobra emerge and make for the bowl of milk. Screams ring out as he jumps to slam the veranda doors safely shut.

10 “You were right, Colonel!” the host exclaims. “A man has just shown us an example of perfect control.”

11 “Just a minute,” the American says, turning to his hostess. “Mrs. Wynnes, how did you know the cobra was in the room?”

12 A faint smile lights up the woman’s face as she replies. “Because it was crawling across my foot.”



1. someone who works in India for another country’s embassy

2. someone who studies plants and animals

3. one of several internal beams supporting the framework of a roof

4. a roofed platform along the outside of a house on the ground level

5. money of India

Which of the statements below best describes the irony in “The Dinner Party”? (AKS 1)

A.
The story begins with an argument that women do not have as much control as men in a crisis situation, but the men screamed like women during a crisis.

B.
The story begins with an argument that women do not have as much control as men in a crisis situation, but the hostess showed extreme control during a crisis.

C.
The story begins with an argument that women do not have as much control as men in a crisis situation, and the American naturalist proved this to be true when he does not warn the others of the crisis.

D.
There is no irony.

Since carmen was so hungry she stopped at the deli and brought a sandwich identify the dependent clause and circle the independent clause

Monsters of the deep the ocean is full of mysteries and amazing creatures. since the first sailors left their home shores and set off for adventure, stories have been told of the strange and wondrous beasts encountered on the open ocean. with only glimpses and imagination-enhanced stories to go on, humans have made many an interesting creature into a monster. the truth is, the ocean's scariest creatures inhabit such extreme depths that humans are rarely, if ever, threatened by them. that does not mean they are not the stuff of nightmares. consider, if you will, the following frightful fiends. atlantic hagfish part eel, part sea snake, this sea serpent may have inspired many stories. lacking the scales that most fish have, the hagfish secretes the most amazing slime to protect itself. this slime may be used to suffocate predators. the slime includes small fibers that make it almost impossible to remove. but the hagfish's truly horrific nature lies in what it does to its prey, not its predators. with an excellent sense of smell that compensates for almost total blindness, the hagfish will locate and latch on to a victim. with a circle of razor sharp teeth, the hagfish bores a hole into the side of its now-doomed prey. once the hole is complete, the hagfish just welcomes itself inside for a meal of fish innards. it essentially eats its prey from the inside out. like other deep-sea monsters, however, hagfish are seldom a nuisance to humans. they live most of their lives at depths of up to 5,600 feet. in fact, they prefer a soft sea bottom so they can quickly bury themselves to hide from threats. gulper eel another, more hideous, fiend of the deep is the gulper eel. this creepy critter is part eel and part giant pouch. like a pelican's enormous pouch-shaped mouth, the mouth of the gulper eel can open quite wide to gulp prey. it has a long tail tipped with a glowing organ that is used to lure in prey. in part to its tail, the gulper can reach up to six feet in length. because its tail is so thin, it is not able to pursue prey with any speed, but it can scoop up hundreds of small crustaceans or shrimp in one bite. often swimming through these prey groups with its mouth wide open, its large jaws allow it to feed on squid and other creatures much larger than itself. gulper eels have only been studied because they sometimes get caught in the nets of fishermen. the depths they inhabit make it quite difficult for scientists to study them. they can go as deep as 6,000 feet, well beyond the abilities of humans to pursue them. vampire squid perhaps the most frightening of the deep-sea monsters is also the smallest. the vampire squid reaches lengths of only six inches. it is also one of the most ancient of the deep-sea monsters. scientists believe it to be the last surviving member of its order. to see the vampire squid is to wonder how many kinds of sea creatures have been mashed into this one odd-looking spook. part squid, part octopus, and part fish, the vampire squid has features of all of these. first, it has large fins at the top of its head that look like ears. flapping like dumbo, the squid uses these fins to get around. it also has tentacles and a large bulbous head like an octopus. its arms, however, are connected by webbing that allows it to form a cloak around itself when frightened. like the octopus, it can change its colors, even making its cloak so dark that it appears invisible. remarkably, it has the largest eyes compared to its body size of any creature on earth. despite its mere six-inch length, its eyes are as big as those of a large dog. with its glowing orbs of eyes and its disappearing tricks, it's no wonder it's named after one of the most feared creatures of legends and folklore: the vampire. these creatures make one wonder not just about the odd members of the deep-sea community, but also what mysterious things inhabit the regions never visited by humans. what may be lurking in the deepest, darkest corners of the deep blue seas? one thing we know for certain, much like the outrageous monsters we conjure in our worst nightmares, the deep ocean is an equally imaginative source of shock, awe, and outright fright. what are the key differences between the atlantic hagfish and the gulper eel? use details and quotations from the text to support your answer.

Read this excerpt from "herd about the flu." the flu shot prevent huge numbers of infections. even when it doesn't fully prevent infection in every person, the shot makes any flu infection less serious. on a global scale, the vaccine can reduce the number of infections only if most people in the community take it. that's because vaccines need to reach enough people to achieve a "herd immunity," the level of immunity needed to prevent the virus from spreading. if too few people get the vaccine, the people who receive it may not be well protected against infection. so the next time you are at the drugstore, and you see no flu shots available, think about the reasons behind it. drug makers are scared to make too many flu shots because they could lose too much money. they then make fewer flu shots and the effect of the flu shots becomes weaker because not enough people take it. people become more reluctant to take the flu shot since they don't think it will fully work. the demand goes down further and the flu companies make even fewer shots the next year. this could continue until the community changes its mind and we all get the flu shot. "that is a community responsibility," says the president of merck, one of the two remaining flu vaccine manufacturers. which argument best supports the passage's claim that more people should get the flu vaccine to stop the virus from spreading? 1.if too few people get the vaccine, the people who receive it may not be well protected against infection 2. so the next time you are at the drugstore, and you see no flu shots available, think about the reasons behind it. 3.people become more reluctant to take the flu shot since they don’t think it will fully work. 4.drug makers are scared to make too many flu shots because they could lose too much money.