Compare the statements below and select the statement that best introduces a topic and includes a preview of what is to follow. summer on uranus can last about twenty-one years. summer in arizona is nearly half of the year. most schools still take summers off, though this may not be true much longer. many students across the country enjoy summer.

Read the excerpt from chapter 30 of the awakening. the golden shimmer of edna's satin gown spread in rich folds on either side of her. there was a soft fall of lace encircling her shoulders. it was the color of her skin, without the glow, the myriad living tints that one may sometimes discover in vibrant flesh. there was something in her attitude, in her whole appearance when she leaned her head against the high-backed chair and spread her arms, which suggested the regal woman, the one who rules, who looks on, who stands alone. what does this excerpt reveal about edna's character? edna is comfortable wearing rich fabrics such as lace and silk, and feels completely at ease at the dinner table. edna plays the role of the gracious hostess very well, but is actually isolated from her peers. edna has no patience for her guests, but rather treats them as a queen may treat her loyal subjects. edna's attitude is haughty, as required of a woman of her social stature living in new orleans.

Analyze how edgar allan poe's choice of setting in "the raven" to develop the speaker's character. be sure to use specific details from the poem to support your ideas.

Read this paragraph from chapter 5 of the prince. there are, for example, the spartans and the romans. the spartans held athens and thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. the romans, in order to hold capua, carthage, and numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. they wished to hold greece as the spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. so to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. and he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. and whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the florentines. what idea is stressed in the passage? the desire for liberty the establishment of an oligarchy the dismantling of an acquired state the tendency toward rebellion