Question

metal for answers


Which words most clearly suggest something fun?

Bouncy, skipping, light

Moist, measurable, momentary

Subtle, glowing, foggy

Sweetly, sugary, sticky

I choose A i just want to be sure thanks

Answer 1

A, correct.

Answer 2

I thought it was D, but then I looked 1 more time.

Answer 3

The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Chapter II: The Marketplace

In fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine, which now, for two or three generations past, has been merely historical and [traditional] among us, but was held, in the old time, to be as effectual an agent, in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France. It was, in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy1 was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature—whatever be the delinquencies of the individual—no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do. In Hester Prynne's instance, however, as not infrequently in other cases, her sentence bore that she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head, the proneness to which was the most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine. Knowing well her part, she ascended a flight of wooden steps, and was thus displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height of a man's shoulders above the street…

The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering at it. The witnesses of Hester Prynne's disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity… Even had there been a disposition to turn the matter into ridicule, it must have been repressed and overpowered by the solemn presence of men no less dignified than the governor, and several of his counsellors, a judge, a general, and the ministers of the town, all of whom sat or stood in a balcony of the meeting-house, looking down upon the platform. When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle, without risking the majesty, or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning. Accordingly, the crowd was sombre and grave. The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her [scarlet A]. It was almost intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety of insult; but there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn mood of the popular mind, that she longed rather to behold all those rigid countenances contorted with scornful merriment, and herself the object. Had a roar of laughter burst from the multitude—each man, each woman, each little shrill-voiced child, contributing their individual parts—Hester Prynne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile. But, under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once.

Yet there were intervals when the whole scene, in which she was the most conspicuous object, seemed to vanish from her eyes, or, at least, glimmered indistinctly before them, like a mass of imperfectly shaped and spectral images. Her mind, and especially her memory, was preternaturally active, and kept bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a little town, on the edge of the western wilderness: other faces than were lowering upon her from beneath the brims of those steeple-crowned hats. Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came swarming back upon her, intermingled with recollections of whatever was gravest in her subsequent life; one picture precisely as vivid as another; as if all were of similar importance, or all alike a play. Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit to relieve itself by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality.

Be that as it might, the scaffold of the pillory was a point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track along which she had been treading, since her happy infancy. Standing on that miserable eminence, she saw again her native village, in Old England, and her paternal home: a decayed house of grey stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility. She saw her father's face, with its bold brow, and reverend white beard that flowed over the old-fashioned Elizabethan ruff; her mother's, too, with the look of heedful and anxious love which it always wore in her remembrance, and which, even since her death, had so often laid the impediment of a gentle remonstrance in her daughter's pathway. She saw her own face, glowing with girlish beauty, and illuminating all the interior of the dusky mirror in which she had been wont to gaze at it. There she beheld another countenance, of a man well stricken in years, a pale, thin, scholar-like visage, with eyes dim and bleared by the lamp-light that had served them to pore over many ponderous books. Yet those same bleared optics had a strange, penetrating power, when it was their owner's purpose to read the human soul. This figure of the study and the cloister, as Hester Prynne's womanly fancy failed not to recall, was slightly deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right… Lastly, in lieu of these shifting scenes, came back the rude market-place of the Puritan, settlement, with all the townspeople assembled, and levelling their stern regards at Hester Prynne—yes, at herself—who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.

Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes these were her realities—all else had vanished!
1Deep humiliation and disgrace

Which sentence best describes the key idea developed in the fourth paragraph?

Hester had a rather unpleasant family life that explains her present.

Hester has a series of painful memories running through her mind.

Hester recalls details of her past but cannot escape the present.

Hester relives her happy childhood and recalls a stranger.

Answer 4

thank

Answer 5

thanks

Answer 6

C

Answer 7

The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Chapter II: The Marketplace

In fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine, which now, for two or three generations past, has been merely historical and [traditional] among us, but was held, in the old time, to be as effectual an agent, in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France. It was, in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy1 was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature—whatever be the delinquencies of the individual—no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do. In Hester Prynne's instance, however, as not infrequently in other cases, her sentence bore that she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head, the proneness to which was the most devilish characteristic of this ugly engine. Knowing well her part, she ascended a flight of wooden steps, and was thus displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height of a man's shoulders above the street…

The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering at it. The witnesses of Hester Prynne's disgrace had not yet passed beyond their simplicity… Even had there been a disposition to turn the matter into ridicule, it must have been repressed and overpowered by the solemn presence of men no less dignified than the governor, and several of his counsellors, a judge, a general, and the ministers of the town, all of whom sat or stood in a balcony of the meeting-house, looking down upon the platform. When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle, without risking the majesty, or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning. Accordingly, the crowd was sombre and grave. The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her [scarlet A]. It was almost intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety of insult; but there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn mood of the popular mind, that she longed rather to behold all those rigid countenances contorted with scornful merriment, and herself the object. Had a roar of laughter burst from the multitude—each man, each woman, each little shrill-voiced child, contributing their individual parts—Hester Prynne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile. But, under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt, at moments, as if she must needs shriek out with the full power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground, or else go mad at once.

Yet there were intervals when the whole scene, in which she was the most conspicuous object, seemed to vanish from her eyes, or, at least, glimmered indistinctly before them, like a mass of imperfectly shaped and spectral images. Her mind, and especially her memory, was preternaturally active, and kept bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a little town, on the edge of the western wilderness: other faces than were lowering upon her from beneath the brims of those steeple-crowned hats. Reminiscences, the most trifling and immaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came swarming back upon her, intermingled with recollections of whatever was gravest in her subsequent life; one picture precisely as vivid as another; as if all were of similar importance, or all alike a play. Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit to relieve itself by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of the reality.

Be that as it might, the scaffold of the pillory was a point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track along which she had been treading, since her happy infancy. Standing on that miserable eminence, she saw again her native village, in Old England, and her paternal home: a decayed house of grey stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility. She saw her father's face, with its bold brow, and reverend white beard that flowed over the old-fashioned Elizabethan ruff; her mother's, too, with the look of heedful and anxious love which it always wore in her remembrance, and which, even since her death, had so often laid the impediment of a gentle remonstrance in her daughter's pathway. She saw her own face, glowing with girlish beauty, and illuminating all the interior of the dusky mirror in which she had been wont to gaze at it. There she beheld another countenance, of a man well stricken in years, a pale, thin, scholar-like visage, with eyes dim and bleared by the lamp-light that had served them to pore over many ponderous books. Yet those same bleared optics had a strange, penetrating power, when it was their owner's purpose to read the human soul. This figure of the study and the cloister, as Hester Prynne's womanly fancy failed not to recall, was slightly deformed, with the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right… Lastly, in lieu of these shifting scenes, came back the rude market-place of the Puritan, settlement, with all the townspeople assembled, and levelling their stern regards at Hester Prynne—yes, at herself—who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.

Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes these were her realities—all else had vanished!
1Deep humiliation and disgrace

Part 1: What effect does the scarlet A have on the tension in the scene described in this excerpt?

Please fill in blank 1 using A, B, C, or D.

A. It creates a focal point for both the crowd and Hester's pain.
B. It is a buffer between Hester, her child, and the townspeople.
C. It makes a statement about the will of the community to punish.
D. It suggests Hester's punishment is easily transformed into beauty.

Part B:
Select two quotations that help support the answer to Part A and enter your selections in blanks 2 and 3 provided, making sure your answers are in alphabetical order.

E. …such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature
F. a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrated at her [scarlet A]
G. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings
H. Yet there were intervals when the whole scene, in which she was the most conspicuous object,
the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom
I. and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real.
J. …who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.

Answer for Blank 1:
Answer for Blank 2:
Answer for Blank 3:

Answer 8

Part 1 D part B, G. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings
Part c: E. …such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature

Answer 9

The Problem with Dimmesdale

By Mary Elizabeth Clare

It is easy to judge Reverend Dimmesdale, the cowardly, self-abusing, and oh-so-guilty minister in The Scarlet Letter. He values his position in society more than just about everything there is to value in life: relationships, sanity, peaceful reflection. At times in the novel, he also seems to prize his guilt, bearing it as if it were as gilded as Hester's letter. Dimmesdale is presented as weak, self-absorbed, and guilty. When he climbs the scaffold, following Hester's footprints to make his very feeble attempt to confess, readers see the consequences of this conflict clearly. Dimmesdale's hidden shame becomes, because of his own lack of strength, the ultimate punishment. Because of this, and the stifling restrictions of Puritan society, perhaps Dimmesdale deserves some pity.

Hester lives out her punishment publically and painfully on the scaffold and in her daily life. While Dimmesdale does not suffer this public shame, he is shamed nonetheless. Surely Dimmesdale's self-inflicted punishment is far worse than Hester's scarlet letter. Beating himself with the scourge, and carving his own A in his flesh are manifestations of his sense of guilt. Without an outlet, or a chance to ask forgiveness from the people he's wronged, surely this guilty feeling is amplified. While Hester can't escape the outward display of her shame, she does have quiet moments in which to escape her penance. Dimmesdale, however, can never escape his own inner torment. In the scene in the market place, Dimmesdale, forced to publicly coerce Hester, says "Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life." While guilty of letting Hester bear the public burden, he is fully aware of the consequences of hiding—and even hints at his own ending.

In addition, unlike Hester, Dimmesdale has no source of human comfort. Hester had the public shame, but she also had Pearl. He had no one to confide in, and no one like Pearl to distract him from his own morbid thoughts. Dimmesdale's only companion is Chillingsworth, who only increases his torment. Dimmesdale's isolation is made clear in his interactions with Chillingsworth: "Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared." Hester receives a constant stream of admonitions and moral guidance, but the guidance and nudgings Dimmesdale receives from Chillingsworth are far more sinister and evil. Dimmesdale has to remain constantly on guard. Dimmesdale himself explains this: "Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret! Thou little knowest what a relief it is, after the torment of a seven years' cheat, to look into an eye that recognises me for what I am!" The lack of meaningful human connection surely adds to Dimmesdale's unhappy burden.

Hester was branded by the letter she wore, but that branding freed her from the constant fear of being found out. Dimmesdale feels not only the shame of his secret but the dread of its discovery. Hawthorne writes, "all the dread of public exposure, that had so long been the anguish of his life, had returned upon him," as Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold and tries, in vain, to do his public confession and penance. This is the moment readers feel the most disdain for Dimmesdale. He lacks the courage that Hester must summon daily. He is pitiful, weak, and pathetic on the scaffold with his meager cries and self-loathing. We hate him as much as he hates himself. Yet, this moment also should give us pause in our condemnation. The consequences of confession for Dimmesdale are dire. Death was not unknown as a punishment for these kinds of transgressions. The fact that Dimmesdale held his tongue for seven years would not have increased the community's willingness to forgive him either. While he fails to receive the forgiveness he so desires, his stance on the scaffold is an act of extreme bravery.

Puritans believed their main purpose in life was to do God's work. They made it their business to make sure every member of the community stayed busy doing this important work. And those who had a misstep were not treated lightly. Public lashings and stockade time were frequent events in the public square. There were even fines for infrequent church attendance. For Hester and Dimmesdale, this culture was everything to them. Their very presence in the new world bespoke a commitment to these rules of behavior made before embarking from England. While it is easy to admire Hester's courage and commitment to both Pearl and Dimmesdale, her strength should not diminish Dimmesdale in our eyes. He is weak—but he does not pretend otherwise. He is guilty—but he honors that guilt daily and does not deny it. He is miserable—and he dies with only scant moments of reprieve from that misery. It is easy to hate Dimmesdale, but it is important to remember he does not exploit Hester, nor does he profit from his transgression. Indeed, he pays with his life.

Part A: Which of the following correctly summarizes the main points of the second paragraph?

Please fill in blank 1 using A, B, C, or D.

A. Like others before him, Dimmesdale's punishment does not fit his crime.
B. Like the people of the town, Dimmesdale has trouble forgiving Hester.
C. Unlike Hester, Dimmesdale cannot charm the townspeople into forgiveness.
D. Unlike Hester, Dimmesdale does not publically confess, adding to his suffering.

Part B:
Select two additional lines that most clearly support the idea expressed in the answer to Part A and enter your selections in blanks 2 and 3 provided, making sure your answers are in alphabetical order.

E. Hester lives out her punishment publically and painfully on the scaffold…
F. Surely Dimmesdale's self-inflicted punishment is far worse than Hester's scarlet letter.
G. …she does have quiet moments in which to escape her penance
H. Dimmesdale, however, can never escape his own inner torment.
I. While guilty of letting Hester bear the public burden
J. …he is fully aware of the consequences of hiding—and even hints at his own ending

Answer for Blank 1:
Answer for Blank 2:
Answer for Blank 3: