Reading final review second semester

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?

• Preferring the preservation of peace over the preservation of liberty

• The dangers of becoming embroiled in international politics

• The biases created by regional political parties

• Preferring one foreign country over another

I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to humane practices. [International maritime law] the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.

It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.

• "The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed."

• "Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be."

• "The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind."

• "American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of . . ."

She needed a jolt of caffeine to start her day. What does "jolt" mean?

• push or shake

• a sudden shock or surprise

• drink

• a rough or violent movement

Skiers congregated around the lodge's fireplace. What does "congregated" mean?

• to come together in a group or crowd

• commune

• met together for a meeting

• gathered for a religious occasion

We drove for hours along a desolate stretch of road. What does the word "desolate" mean?

• dirty

• dismal

• depressing

• deserted

I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions about the schedule. What does the word "misconceptions" mean?

• questions

• rumors

• wrong ideas

• statements

An excerpt from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Address to the Irish Parliament, 1998

Members of the Dail and Seanad, after all the long and torn history of our two peoples, standing here as the first British prime minister ever to address the joint Houses of the Oireachtas, I feel profoundly both the history in this event, and I feel profoundly the enormity of the honour that you are bestowing upon me. From the bottom of my heart, go raibh mile maith agaibh.Ireland, as you may know, is in my blood. My mother was born in the flat above her grandmother's hardware shop on the main street of Ballyshannon in Donegal. She lived there as a child, started school there and only moved when her father died; her mother remarried and they crossed the water to Glasgow.We spent virtually every childhood summer holiday up to when the troubles really took hold in Ireland, usually at Rossnowlagh, the Sands House Hotel, I think it was. And we would travel in the beautiful countryside of Donegal. It was there in the seas off the Irish coast that I learned to swim, there that my father took me to my first pub, a remote little house in the country, for a Guinness, a taste I've never forgotten and which it is always a pleasure to repeat.Even now, in my constituency of Sedgefield, which at one time had 30 pits or more, all now gone, virtually every community remembers that its roots lie in Irish migration to the mines of Britain.So like it or not, we, the British and the Irish, are irredeemably linked.We experienced and absorbed the same waves of invasions: Celts, Vikings, Normans -- all left their distinctive mark on our countries. Over a thousand years ago, the monastic traditions formed the basis for both our cultures. Sadly, the power games of medieval monarchs and feudal chiefs sowed the seeds of later trouble.Yet it has always been simplistic to portray our differences as simply Irish versus English -- or British. There were, after all, many in Britain too who suffered greatly at the hands of powerful absentee landlords, who were persecuted for their religion, or who were for centuries disenfranchised. And each generation in Britain has benefited, as ours does, from the contribution of Irishmen and women. Today the links between our parliaments are continued by the British-Irish Parliamentary Body, and last month 60 of our MPs set up a new all-party "Irish in Britain Parliamentary Group. "Irish parliamentarians have made a major contribution to our shared parliamentary history. Let me single out just two: Daniel O'Connell, who fought against injustice to extend a franchise restricted by religious prejudice; Charles Stewart Parnell, whose statue stands today in the House of Commons and whose political skills and commitment to social justice made such an impact in that House. So much shared history, so much shared pain. And now the shared hope of a new beginning.

Why does Tony Blair include the underlined paragraph?

• To show how different the two groups are

• To show connections between the two groups

• To encourage the two groups to help each other out

• To reiterate the history dividing the two groups

Just a week or so earlier, in New York, I had visited with Nicole Sabatini, a student of Volpe’s in the mid-1990s. We sat in a coffee shop in the basement of 30 Rockefeller Center. A slightly built former dancer, she worked upstairs as a vice president at Bravo. “A lot of us had an idea who Mr. Volpe was even before we got into high school,” she said. “You wanted to be part of what he created. You looked forward to it. My first year I auditioned for Little Shop of Horrors and didn’t get a part, but he told me it was going to be a good three years for me, that he was impressed by me.“I got leads in two musicals after that. Then in my senior year, I didn’t get a part in the drama, and then it got picked for the main stage at the national festival [the annual International Thespian Festival, a massive high school gathering each summer at the University of Nebraska]. I went to the festival as a stage manager. I had one job to do—press ‘Play’ on a cassette player to turn on some music. I’m not gonna lie—it hurt. But it was a big lesson for me. I had done my best at the auditions, but it wasn’t good enough. It happens sometimes when you’re around other people who are talented.”

Which of the following genres best describes this passage?

• fiction

• autobiography

• science fiction

• biography

George came downstairs into the hotel office carrying a brown leather bag. His trunk was packed for departure. Since two o’clock he had been awake thinking of the journey he was about to take and wondering what he would find at the end of his journey. The boy who slept in the hotel office lay on a cot by the door. His mouth was open and he snored lustily. George crept past the cot and went out into the silent deserted main street. The east was pink with the dawn and long streaks of light climbed into the sky where a few stars still shone.

George is nervous about his trip. Which sentence from the passage provides the best evidence to support that claim?

• “Young George Willard got out of bed at four in the morning.”

• “George came downstairs into the hotel office carrying a brown leather bag.”

• “Since two o’clock he had been awake thinking of the journey he was about to take and wondering what he would find at the end of his journey.”

• “George crept past the cot and went out into the silent deserted main street.”

George came downstairs into the hotel office carrying a brown leather bag. His trunk was packed for departure. Since two o’clock he had been awake thinking of the journey he was about to take and wondering what he would find at the end of his journey. The boy who slept in the hotel office lay on a cot by the door. His mouth was open and he snored lustily. George crept past the cot and went out into the silent deserted main street. The east was pink with the dawn and long streaks of light climbed into the sky where a few stars still shone.

From which point of view is the passage written?

• first person

• second person

• third person omniscient

• third person limited