Based on the way the word "inferior is used in the following sentence, what would be the best synonym,

"We were made to feel inferior

We didn’t even have clean water to drink?"

In the essay, "Fish Cheeks" what can we infer is the reason that the speaker completly ignores Robert, "Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence?"

What can we infer about the speaker's mother from the following quote,"or my 11th birthday, my mom made me my favorite Korean dish, oh jing uh bokkeum (spicy stir-

fried squid), and I looked at her with disdain as I declared, 'This is disgusting.' The next day for dinner, she made me a cheeseburger."

From the poem "Lost Voices," the speaker says "I would ask you to think before you speak, but your mind has got to be bacteria infected." What is meant by the phrase "mind has got to be bacteria infected in that quote?

In the spoken word "Lost Voices," they say "to say you know my pain is to stab yourself in the leg because you saw me get shot." What does this quote mean based on the way it is used?

Read the excerpt from "Why Safely Opening HIgh school Sports Will be Difficult.

"It might seem like overkill to regularly test all athletes. But the current tally of 150 collegiate athletes (mostly football players) who have tested positive for COVID-19 grows longer by the day."

What is the effect of the author’s use of "overkill" in the selection?

Read the excerpt from "Is Your Smartphone Making You Shy?"

During the three years I’ve spent researching and writing about shyness, one of the most common questions people ask is about the relationship between shyness and technology.

Are the internet and the cellphone causing our social skills to atrophy? I often hear this from parents of shy teenagers, who are worried that their children are spending more time with their devices than with their peers.

Based on the excerpt, what does the author mean by "atrophy?"

Read the excerpt from "Is Your Smartphone Making You Shy."

Another scholar of cellphone culture, Bella Ellwood-Clayton, showed how text messages served a similar purpose in the Philippines. Filipino courtship rituals are traditionally coy and convoluted, with elaborate customs such as “teasing” (tuksuhan) among mutual friends or using an intermediary (tulay, which literally translates to “human bridge”) between potential partners. The cellphone allowed young Filipinos to circumvent these elaborate, risk-averse routines and test the waters themselves by text.

"Texting emboldens those who are more dexterous with their thumbs than with their tongues. The ping announcing a text’s arrival is less insistent than a phone ring. It does not catch us by surprise or demand we answer it instantly. It lends us space to digest and ponder a response."

What is the meaning of the phrase above in red?

Read the excerpt from "Is Your Smartphone Making You Shy?"

"Not everyone using social networks is amenable to radical transparency, of course. Some prefer to hide behind online personas, pseudonyms and avatars. And this anonymity can also inspire the opposite of shyness – a boldness that turns into hostility and abuse."

What is being implied by the paragraph?

Read the excerpt from "Student Guide: 6 ways to build motivation to do your schoolwork while you’re learning from home."

1. Guard your time

You do not need large amounts of time to be productive. Instead, be intentional and focused in short blocks when you can work without interruption. Protect these open times by setting up your workspace to minimize distractions–including silencing notifications on your cellphone or laptop. Communicate your boundaries to friends and family and make sure to identify separate times when work and socialization can happen.

Based on the way "boundries" is used above, which is the BEST definition?

Read the excerpt from "Student Guide: 6 ways to build motivation to do your schoolwork while you’re learning from home."

"6. Be flexible and go easy on yourselfThis is an unprecedented crisis, and we are all scrambling to make it work. Even if you did virtual learning last semester, it can still feel stressful and confusing. Some days won’t go as planned—and that’s alright. Forgive yourself when you don’t do your best, then move forward and overcome the setbacks.

Based on the way it is used, what is the BEST definition for the word "unprecedented?"

What is the meaning of the word "sound" as used in the following sentence?

Looking back, I should have listened to Chalayah's sound advice on my exboyfriend.

Read the following excerpt from "Teach"

"It’s to help you reach your full potential

But your bad attitude is detrimental

To your success

That’s why we don’t have recess

We have no time to play

Today

Is the first day of the rest of your education

Can’t play now, you can do that over summer vacation"

What is the meaning of the phrase "We have no time to play?"

Read the excerpt from "Student Guide: 6 ways to build motivation to do your schoolwork while you’re learning from home." What is meant by "Guard Your Time?"

1. Guard your time

You do not need large amounts of time to be productive. Instead, be intentional and focused in short blocks when you can work without interruption. Protect these open times by setting up your workspace to minimize distractions–including silencing notifications on your cellphone or laptop. Communicate your boundaries to friends and family and make sure to identify separate times when work and socialization can happen.

Read the excerpt from, "Young people value diversity, humor and honesty in their friendships."

The researchers surveyed 895 students who were between the ages of 10 and 17 and came from 11 different schools. The students were asked what qualities they look for in a friend. They were given 11 options to choose from. Options included confidence, honesty, money, popularity, and looks. They had to choose three qualities.

The three qualities most chosen by young people were:

Humor (82%)

Honesty (67%)

Kindness (61%)

The researchers were surprised to find that popularity (4%) and intelligence (14%) were not very popular choices.

What is implied in the paragraph(s) above?

Read the excerpt from, "Young people value diversity, humor and honesty in their friendships."

The survey results also show that young people are friends with all sorts of people at school. It also shows that young people want to be part of a strong, safe community that is built on friendship. They want friendships that promote trust, concern for oneself, a sense of self-worth, and individual and community responsibility.

Hopefully the positive friendships that young people develop at school will help them be more involved members of their communities when they become adults. It is likely that their inclusive friendships will provide them with a wider view of the world.

What is implied in the second paragraph?

What is the BEST meaning of the word "feast" as used in the excerpt from "This is Not Who We Are?"

Apparently, the entire United States has taken to reading more poetry, which can only be a good sign. Journalists ask, “Why do you suppose people are finding strength in poetry now?” Those of us who have been reading poetry all our lives aren’t a bit surprised. As a direct line to human feeling, empathic experience, genuine language and detail, poetry is everything that headline news is not. It takes us inside situations, helps us imagine life from more than one perspective, honors imagery and metaphor — those great tools of thought — and deepens our confidence in a meaningful world.

I feast on The Poetry of Arab Women, a contemporary collection published in 2003. Deema K. Shehabi wrote, “And where is that mountain / that will fold us inward slowly / ...enemy of melancholy, ally of life/glistening darkly / in silence.”

What is implied from the excerpt from "This Is Not Who We Are?"

When a gentle man I don’t know approaches me in a crowd at a literary conference to say, “I am afraid for my daughter to admit she is half-Arab now. What should we do?” I am momentarily tongue-tied.

Later I wish I had told him, “Tell her never deny it. Maybe Arab-Americans must say we are twice as sad as other people. But we are still proud of everything peaceful and beautiful that endures. Then speak beauty if we can — the beauty of culture, poetry, tradition, memory, family, daily life. Each day, live in honor of the ones who didn’t have this luxury or time. We are not alone.”

Read the excerpt from "This Is Not Who We Are." What is being implied from the following quote:

I keep thinking, we teach children to use language to solve their disputes. We teach them not to hit and fight and bite. Then look at what adults do!

I read about the Seeds of Peace teenagers, Arabs and Israelis who come together in Maine and Jerusalem for deepened dialogue and greater understanding. Their gatherings are not easy. They cry and fear and worry. But they emerge from their sessions changed. Every weapon on earth betrays their efforts, but we need them desperately, to balance the cruel tides.

Read the following excerpt from "Hello My Name Is," which piece of text evidence best supports the inference that disdain means hate.

"At the dinner table, I committed the two worst sins that a Korean son could possibly commit: I stopped

speaking Korean and I stopped eating Korean food. My parents would try to talk to me over a bowl of

kimchi stew, and I would pout and ask, in English, if we could order the Meat Lover's pie from Pizza Hut. For my 11th birthday, my mom made me my favorite Korean dish, oh jing uh bokkeum (spicy stir-

fried squid), and I looked at her with disdain as I declared, "This is disgusting." The next day for dinner, she made me a cheeseburger. I promptly told her it tasted inauthentic and made her drive me to

McDonald's. Oh, and no more special snacks either. Unless they were artificially flavored and made by

Kraft. (I was a heinous child. Sorry, Mom.)"

Which group of words from "Hello My Name Is" best convey the author's attitude on being different?

How did I settle on Jason? Because I didn't speak

any English. Because my teacher didn't speak any

Korean. And because it was either going to be

Aladdin, from my favorite childhood Disney tale,

or Jason, from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

I spent the next decade wanting nothing morethan to look like a Larry Lorberbaum or a GarrettKennedy. I still vividly remember my first time atrecess, a confusing experience for several reasons, in large part because hanging off monkey bars andmaking each other cry during dodgeball were not educationally sanctioned activities in Asia. What was so fun about waiting in line, running up the steps, and going down a tiny slide over and over again?What was the value in sprinting after your classmate like a person with rabies, screaming, “TAG!”Why didn't anyone look, sound, or act like me?I spent most days at recess sitting alone on the sidelines, eating the special snack that my mother had packed. The snack, a rice cake or a piece of candy from Korea, was always accompanied by a note, usually a joke, and sometimes embellished with a drawing, which often looked like an abstract painting when it was meant to be a sketch of our beloved deceased poodle.

A month had passed when a teacher finally tapped me on the shoulder.

“Are you OK, sweetie?”

Before I could answer, another teacher rang out, “Maybe he likes sitting alone. Maybe that's the Asian

Way.”

But in truth, I wanted to participate. I wanted to run up to Timmy like a crazy person and yell, “YOU'RE

IT!” I just didn't know how.

Outside on the playground, sitting alone at recess, I learned to hate being Asian. I wanted desperately,

more than anything, to be white.

What can we infer about the speaker from the following excerpt from "Fish Cheeks?"

"When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?"

What effect does the author's use of "littered" in the following excerpt from "Fish Cheeks" have on the text:

On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.

And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.

What is the significance of the highlighted statement from the excerpt from "Fish Cheeks?"

And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner. It wasn’t until many years later — long after I had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.