(Offering 25 points for answer)It was Anna Maria's first day at her new school. She didn't know whom to talk to at recess, so she walked up to the nearest group of girls. "It's
my first day here. What are your favorite books?" she asked, trying to
seem casual "Mine's Black Beauty. I think it's so great. I love horses.
She waited for a response for what seemed an eternity, trying to read
their faces. Finally, one of them gave an unenthusiastic answer, and
then they went back to gossiping about people she didn't know.
Anna Maria was embarrassed, but she tried again with a different
group, and after a few awkward conversations, she found a group of
friends who loved books and horses as much as she did. Even though
their interests changed, they remained best friends into adulthood.
Which statement best expresses a theme of this story?
O A Being in an unfamiliar situation brings out the best in people.
B. Awkward conversations are a necessary part of all friendships.
C. If you stay true to who you really are, you will eventually find
friends who understand you
O D. Connecting with others is more important than having things in
common

Select the contred text in the passage which sentence in this excerpt from john galsworthy's narrative essay "gone" reflects his view that there is no afterlife? an old woman and mrs. herd's sister were in the sitting-room, they showed us to the crazy, narrow stairway. though we lived distant but four hundred yards of a crows flight, we had never seen mrs. herd before, for that is the way of things in this land of minding one's own business a slight dark girlish-looking woman, almost quite refined away, and with those eyes of the dying, where the spirit is coming through, as it only does when it knows that al is over except just the passing. she lay in a double bed with clean white sheets. a white-washed room, so low that the ceiling almost touched our heads, some flowers in a bow, the small lattice window open. though it was hot in there, it was better far than the rooms of most families in towns, living on a wage of twice as much, for here was no sign of defeat in decency or cleanliness. in her face, as in poor herd's, was that same strange minging of resigned despair and almost eager appeal, so terrible to disappoint. yet, trying not to disappoint it, one felt guilty of treachery: what was the good, the kindness in making this poor bird flutter still with hope against the bars, when fast prison had so surely closed in round her? but what else could we do? we could not give her those glib assurances that naive souls make so easily to others concerning their after state. and the night was so beautiful, so utterly glamourously beautiful, with its star-flowers, and its silence and its trees clothed in moonlight. all was tranquil as a dream of sleep. but it was long before our hearts wandering with poor herd, would let us remember that she had slipped away into so beautiful a dream

Read the excerpt from "death by black hole."albert einstein's general theory of relativity, published in 1916, provides the insight to understand the bizarre structureof space and time in a high-gravity environment. later research by the american physicist john a. wheeler, and others, to formulate a vocabulary as well as the mathematical tools to describe and predict what a black hole will do toits surroundings. read the excerpt from "man listening to disc."and i bow deeply to thelonious monkfor figuring out a wayto motorize or whatever-his huge pianoso he could be with us today. these excerpts are similar because both texts

In one sentence of approximately 15 to 25 words, write the main idea that thomas paine wants to convert to all the readers of the declaration of independence