Read this excerpt from “Collision Course.” I also didn’t have words like sprawling. What I had was “bolshoy” – big in Russian. That’s what this school was: spread out like a miniature town with its own buildings, streets, alleys, athletic fields, and parking lots. And everything was neatly trimmed, freshly scrubbed, or otherwise perfect. It did not resemble any school I’d ever seen in the ten years I’d been in school in the United States. There was no graffiti, no peeling paint or linoleum, no flickering fluorescent lights, no plywood covering broken windows, and no metal detector at the entrance.

What is the author’s purpose in this excerpt?

to encourage readers to appreciate schools that are well-maintained
to lighten the mood by using humorous details
to create sympathy for the author regarding his past schools
to provide a vivid image of the author’s school settings

Select the correct text in the passage. which sentence in this excerpt from abraham lincoln's second inaugural address conveys that he wanted the us civil war to end as soon as possible? neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. both read the same bible and pray to the same god, and each invokes his aid against the other. it may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just inging their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. the prayers of both could not be answered. that of neither has been answered fully. the almighty has his own purposes. "woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh" if we shall suppose that american slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of god, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both north and south this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living god always ascribe to him? fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. yet, if god wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether." reset next

Need ! compare and contrast your independent reading selection with one or two other selections you have read in this unit. support your response with at least two pieces of evidence from your independent reading selection. be sure to give the title and author of your selection.

Which of the following events of the story actual occurs first in the sequence of events