My mom is always repeating the same old joke: if your friends all jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too? of course not. but i get what she means. she's talking about peer pressure. teenagers like us live with it every day. pretty much every kid wants to be liked, to have friends, to be popular. no one wants people to think they aren't cool. while peer pressure is tough, giving in to it and getting in trouble is tougher. but teenagers are still learning to make good decisions. like this one time my friend harold wanted to take his dad's prized jeep grand cherokee for a drive. harold was 13, and he'd never driven a car before. but he figured he knew enough about operating a motor vehicle just by watching his parents drive. when his parents were out of town one weekend, harold invited me and some of our friends over to his house so he could take us for a drive. i said, "not me," because i knew it was a stupid thing to do. i told him and everybody else what i thought of the idea. (driving isn't easy. it took my big brother weeks to get the hang of it.) harold got mad and told me i was being a chicken. i said, "i'd rather be a chicken than get in an accident and have a broken leg." what is the topic of this passage?

Select the correct text in the passage. in richard connell's short story "the most dangerous game," zaroffs aristocratic appearance and dignified manners mask his sinister, animalistic nature. which line from the excerpt best provides a glimpse into his true nature? rainsford's first impression was that the man was singularly handsome; his second was that there was an original, almost bizarre quality about the general's face. he was a tall man past middle age, for his hair was a vivid white; but his thick eyebrows and pointed military mustache were as black as the night from which rainsford had come. his eyes, too, were black and very bright. he had high cheekbones, a sharpcut nose, a spare, dark face-the face of a man used to giving orders, the face of an aristocrat. turning to the giant in uniform, the general made a sign. the giant put away his pistol, saluted, withdrew. "ivan is an incredibly strong fellow," remarked the general, "but he has the misfortune to be deaf and dumb. a simple fellow, but, i'm afraid, like all his race, a bit of a savage." "is he russian? " "he is a cossack," said the general, and his smile showed red lips and pointed teeth. "so am i." half apologetically general zaroff said, "we do our best to preserve the amenities of civilization here. forgive any lapses. we are well off the beaten track, you know." laughter shook the general. "how extraordinarily droll you are! " he said. "one does not expect nowadays to find a young man of the educated class, even in america, with such a naive, and, if i may say so, mid-victorian point of view. it's like finding a snuffbox in a limousine. ah, well, doubtless you