Read the passage. to waken an old lady by william carlos williams. old age is a flight of small cheeping birds skimming bare trees above a snow glaze. gaining and failing they are buffeted by a dark wind— but what? on harsh weedstalks the flock has rested, the snow is covered with broken seedhusks and the wind tempered by a shrill piping of plenty. what is the theme of this poem? a elderly people should not go outside in snowy and windy weather. b elderly people should live life fully despite the difficulties of old age. c young birds should not try to fly during strong winds. d for young people, life is full of challenges.

Which sentence best contrasts two things? a. air travel, like bus travel, is a fun way to get from one place to another. b. air travel is a fun and relatively easy way to get from place to place. c. both bus travel and air travel require substantial planning. d. air travel is much more expensive than bus travel.

Read the excerpt from "save the redwoods."another, one of the finest in the grove, more than three hundred feet high, was skinned alive to a height of one hundred and sixteen feet from the ground and the bark sent to london to show how fine and big that calaveras tree was—as sensible a scheme as skinning our great men would be to prove their greatness. which  best  describes how the excerpt appeals to readers’ emotions? the excerpt provides facts about the tree, which impresses readers’ scientific minds. the excerpt describes how the tree traveled to london, which excites the readers’ sense of adventure. the excerpt compares the tree to a person, which makes readers feel sympathetic toward the tree. the excerpt explains how to skin a tree, which makes readers feel awed at the height of the tree.

Me? which of the following describes theodore roosevelt’s ideas about the role of the government? a) to keep the powerful from taking advantage of small business owners b) to all citizens get rich and to take care of the lazy c) to break all company trusts because all big businesses wanted to bully the smaller ones d) to close off all wild lands and leave them untouched