I Hear America Singingby Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand

singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or

at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of

the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,

robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

In the context of the poem, what does the word blithe most likely mean?

Is the following sentence a simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex sentence?

I watched the movie last night, but I didn't like it.

Read this creation story:

A long time ago, there was a vast expanse of water instead of earth. The animals and trees lived on a level above the water. One day, Wise Badger dived deep into the water to search for mud. Sadly, he could not swim for long and had to come back. The animals decided to send Brave Muskrat to get the mud. He dived into water and swam for a long time. He came up with a small amount of mud. The mud began to expand in every direction, creating an island. The animals waited for the island to dry. They sent Big Crow to keep watch on the island. In seven days, Big Crow returned and informed them that the island was dry and ready. The animals and trees moved onto the island and lived happily ever after.

What is this type of creation story called?

What type of creation story describes how Earth originated from water?

Based on his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which phrase best describes how Jonathan Edwards interacted with his audience?

What might be the poet's purpose in this poem?

The Little Boy Lost by William Blake

Father, father, where are you going?

O do not walk so fast!

Speak, father, speak to your little boy,

Or else I shall be lost.

The night was dark, no father was there,

The child was wet with dew;

The mire was deep, and the child did weep,

And away the vapor flew

Why has the poet compared imagination to a soaring bird in this excerpt from the poem "On Imagination" by Phillis Wheatley?

Imagination! who can sing thy force?

Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?

Soaring through air to find the bright abode,

Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,

We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,

And leave the rolling universe behind:

From star to star the mental optics rove,

Measure the skies, and range the realms above.

There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,

Which characteristic of neoclassical poetry is displayed in this excerpt from the poem “Goliath of Gath” by Phillis Wheatley?

Ye martial pow'rs, and all ye tuneful nine,

Inspire my song, and aid my high design.

The dreadful scenes and toils of war I write,

The ardent warriors, and the fields of fight:

You best remember, and you best can sing

The acts of heroes to the vocal string:

What is the participial phrase in the following sentence?

Noted for her beauty, Helen of Troy was to become a well-known character in Greek mythology.

Which essay by Thomas Paine was read to the Continental Army before the Battle of Trenton to help boost the soldiers' morale?

What was Thomas Paine's primary purpose in writing "The Crisis, No. 1"?

What argument does the author anticipate and refute in this excerpt from the Declaration of Independence?

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

Which argument is true based on this excerpt from the US Constitution?

Judgment in Cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Which of the following is a prominent theme in romanticism?

What trait typical of the romantic era is brought out in Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle"?

Which sentence from Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle" is an example of indirect characterization?

Which literary device is employed in the following sentence from Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener"?

And here Bartleby makes his home, sole spectator of a solitude which he has seen all populous—a sort of innocent and transformed Marius brooding among the ruins of Carthage!

Read this sentence, which contains a biblical allusion from the story "The Lightning-Rod Man."

See, the scroll of the storm is rolled back; the house is unharmed; and in the blue heavens I read in the rainbow, that the Deity will not, of purpose, make war on man's earth."

Which of these statements best conveys meaning of the allusion?

Which sentence from Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" suggests that Dr. Heidegger's character represents wisdom and reason?

Which sentence best describes the theme of a poem?

In this excerpt from the poem "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, what is the meaning of the word list?

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,

And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,

Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart;--

Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature's teachings, while from all around--

Earth and her waters, and the depths of air--

Comes a still voice--Yet a few days, and thee

The all-beholding sun shall see no more

Read this sentence from "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe:

In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere.

What does the word quack likely mean?

Which sentence contains a pun?

In this excerpt from Walden by Henry David Thoreau, what can be inferred about where transcendentalist thinkers searched for divinity?

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tchingthang to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again." I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. I was as much affected by the faint hum of a mosquito making its invisible and unimaginable tour through my apartment at earliest dawn, when I was sitting with door and windows open, as I could be by any trumpet that ever sang of fame. It was Homer's requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.

Which two statements best describe the main reasons that formerly enslaved people wrote narratives?

What is the main difference between third-person omniscient and third-person limited points of view?

In what way did realists try to portray life?

What is the author's tone in this line from William Dean Howells's "Editha"?

Then Editha's father said in his public-will-now-address-a-few remarks tone, "My name is Balcom, ma’am; Junius Balcom, of Balcom's Works, NewYork. . . ."

Which aspect of Editha's character does the following excerpt from William Dean Howells's short story "Editha" reveal?

"That ignoble peace! It was no peace at all, with that crime and shame at our very gates." She was conscious of parroting the current phrases of the newspapers, but it was no time to pick and choose her words. She must sacrifice anything to the high ideal she had for him, and after a good deal of rapid argument she ended with the climax: "But now it doesn't matter about the how or why. Since the war has come, all that is gone. There are no two sides, any more. There is nothing now but our country."

In which of the following excerpts from "The Yellow Wall Paper" does author Charlotte Perkins Gilman seem to mock the romantic belief in the supernatural?

What does Mark Twain satirize in this excerpt from "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note"?

It was a lovely dinner-party of fourteen. The Duke and Duchess of Shoreditch, and their daughter the Lady Anne-Grace-Eleanor-Celeste-and-so-forth-and-so-forth-de-Bohun, the Earl and Countess of Newgate, Viscount Cheapside, Lord and Lady Blatherskite, some untitled people of both sexes, the minister and his wife and daughter, and his daughter's visiting friend, an English girl of twenty-two, named Portia Langham, whom I fell in love with in two minutes, and she with me—I could see it without glasses. There was still another guest, an American—but I am a little ahead of my story.

What social commentary does Mark Twain make in this excerpt from "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note"?

You will remember that the Bank of England once issued two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special purpose connected with some public transaction with a foreign country. For some reason or other only one of these had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults of the Bank. Well, the brothers, chatting along, happened to get to wondering what might be the fate of a perfectly honest and intelligent stranger who should be turned adrift in London without a friend, and with no money but that million-pound bank-note, and no way to account for his being in possession of it. Brother A said he would starve to death; Brother B said he wouldn't. Brother A said he couldn't offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be arrested on the spot. So they went on disputing till Brother B said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man would live thirty days, any way, on that million, and keep out of jail, too. Brother A took him up. Brother B went down to the Bank and bought that note. Just like an Englishman, you see; pluck to the backbone.

In this excerpt from Emily Dickinson's poem "Dying," what is the meaning of the word onset?

I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air—

Between the Heaves of Storm—

The Eyes around—had wrung them dry—

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset—when the King

Be witnessed—in the Room—

In this line from Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself," what is the meaning of the word leavings?

And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths

What important naturalist theme is reflected in this excerpt from Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"?

The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland. Often they came very close and stared at the men with black bead-like eyes. At these times they were uncanny and sinister in their unblinking scrutiny, and the men hooted angrily at them, telling them to be gone.

. . . the captain gently and carefully waved the gull away. After it had been discouraged from the pursuit the captain breathed easier on account of his hair, and others breathed easier because the bird struck their minds at this time as being somehow gruesome and ominous.

Read this excerpt from Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat":

The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at this time buried in that

profound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, to

even the bravest and most enduring when, willy nilly, the firm fails, the

army loses, the ship goes down.

What is the meaning of the word dejection in the context of the excerpt?

The Human Drift by Jack London (excerpt)

Man early discovered death. As soon as his evolution permitted, he made himself better devices for killing than the old natural ones of fang and claw. He devoted himself to the invention of killing devices before he discovered fire or manufactured for himself religion. And to this day, his finest creative energy and technical skill are devoted to the same old task of making better and ever better killing weapons. All his days, down all the past, have been spent in killing. And from the fear-stricken, jungle-lurking, cave-haunting creature of long ago, he won to empery over the whole animal world because he developed into the most terrible and awful killer of all the animals. He found himself crowded. He killed to make room, and as he made room ever he increased and found himself crowded, and ever he went on killing to make more room. Like a settler clearing land of its weeds and forest bushes in order to plant corn, so man was compelled to clear all manner of life away in order to plant himself. And, sword in hand, he has literally hewn his way through the vast masses of life that occupied the earth space he coveted for himself. And ever he has carried the battle wider and wider, until to-day not only is he a far more capable killer of men and animals than ever before, but he has pressed the battle home to the infinite and invisible hosts of menacing lives in the world of microorganisms.

In the excerpt, the thesis statement is expressed in these sentences:

Man early discovered death. As soon as his evolution permitted, he made himself better devices for killing than the old natural ones of fang and claw.

Which of these supporting premises reinforces the thesis statement?

I.Like a settler clearing land of its weeds and forest bushes in order to plant corn, so man was compelled to clear all manner of life away in order to plant himself.

II.He devoted himself to the invention of killing devices before he discovered fire or manufactured for himself religion.

III.And ever he has carried the battle wider and wider, until to-day not only is he a far more capable killer of men and animals than ever before, but he has pressed the battle home to the infinite and invisible hosts of menacing lives in the world of microorganisms

IV.And from the fear-stricken, jungle-lurking, cave-haunting creature of long ago, he won to empery over the whole animal world.