Question

pls answer question in the question :O

Answer 1

by T.C. Henderson
The music industry of today is very fickle. Everyone seems to be caught up in finding the "next big thing." Performers want the most popular rapper or "singer" on their songs without caring whether this person is actually talented. Very few music acts, or "professional celebrities" as I call them, are true artists. As such, even fewer of them have lasting careers. The goal of a true artist should always be to create a lasting work. Legendary artists are celebrated for their ability to sing, write, or perform timeless songs. Is there anyone in the current industry whom we will still remember 10 or 20 years from now? Or even think about two years from now, for that matter? Songs like Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" or Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" were written decades ago. Yet they are still important when tragedies occur or in political circles. I believe the time has come for us to return to recognizing true talent. Consumers should stop buying into "packaged" singers. By that, I mean we should stop supporting people who have no talent just because they are attractive or well-dressed. A catchy song does not always uplift the world. I say listen to the words and not just the beat. Good music can change your whole world view and expand your mind.
---

What is the author's purpose in writing this article?

A.
to convince the reader to study music and become an artist
B.
to tell the reader to stop buying music because it is catchy
C.
to inform the reader about legendary artists and performers
D.
to persuade the reader that the music of today is legendary

Answer 2

tnx

Answer 3

can you try this?

Answer 4

by T.C. Henderson
The music industry of today is very fickle. Everyone seems to be caught up in finding the "next big thing." Performers want the most popular rapper or "singer" on their songs without caring whether this person is actually talented. Very few music acts, or "professional celebrities" as I call them, are true artists. As such, even fewer of them have lasting careers. The goal of a true artist should always be to create a lasting work. Legendary artists are celebrated for their ability to sing, write, or perform timeless songs. Is there anyone in the current industry whom we will still remember 10 or 20 years from now? Or even think about two years from now, for that matter? Songs like Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" or Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" were written decades ago. Yet they are still important when tragedies occur or in political circles. I believe the time has come for us to return to recognizing true talent. Consumers should stop buying into "packaged" singers. By that, I mean we should stop supporting people who have no talent just because they are attractive or well-dressed. A catchy song does not always uplift the world. I say listen to the words and not just the beat. Good music can change your whole world view and expand your mind.
---

What does the author mean when she says that "The goal of a true artist should always be to create a lasting work"?

A.
Some artists make songs that are too short.
B.
Only serious artists can make catchy music
C.
A legendary artist makes really long songs.
D.
Good music can last for many generations.

Answer 5

I think it's D

Answer 6

tnx

Answer 7

can you try this one?

Answer 8

Passage 1
Talking about Spices
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in small quantities. A spice is used as a food additive for flavoring. Sometimes a spice is used as a preservative. Spice kills or prevents the growth of harmful bacteria. Many spices are also used for medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfume, or as vegetables.
In the kitchen, spices are used differently than herbs. Herbs are leafy, green plant parts used for flavoring purposes. Herbs, such as basil or oregano, may be used fresh. Herbs are commonly chopped into smaller pieces. Spices are dried and often ground or grated into a powder. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are used both whole and in powder form.
The spice trade developed throughout the Middle East around 2000 BC with cinnamon, Indonesian cinnamon, and pepper. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that the clove could have been introduced to the Middle East very early on. The clove is indigenous to the Indonesian island of Ternate in the Maluku Islands. Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen dated to
1700 BC. The burnt clove was found in the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in what is now modern-day Syria. Spices are also mentioned in many ancient texts. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.
In South Asia, nutmeg has a Sanskrit name. Nutmeg originates from the Banda Islands in the Moluccas. Sanskrit is the language of the sacred Hindu texts. Thus, we know how long nutmeg has been used in South Asia. Historians estimate that nutmeg was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BC. The ancient Indian epic of Ramayana mentions cloves. It is known that the Romans had cloves in the 1st century AD because Pliny the Elder spoke of them in his writings.
Passage 2
What is a spice?
Spice is an aromatic vegetable product used as a flavoring or condiment. In the past, the term "spice(s)" meant pungent or aromatic foods (e.g., gingerbread and currants). The word "spice(s)" was used to describe ingredients used to make incense and/or perfume (e.g., myrrh); "spice(s)" was also used to describe embalming agents. Today, "spice(s)" refers to flavorings used in food or drinks. Many spices still have additional uses as ingredients of medicines, perfumes, incense, and soaps.
Spices include stimulating condiments (e.g., pepper, mustard, and horseradish), aromatic spices (e.g. cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and mace), and sweet herbs (e.g., thyme, marjoram, sage, and mint). Spices are taken from the part of the plant that is the richest in flavor. This part may be bark, stem, flower bud, fruit, seed, or leaf. Spices are very commonly used in the form of a powder. Many spices are used whole.
Garlic, chives, caraway, mustard, and many herbs grow in temperate regions. Vanilla, allspice, and red pepper are indigenous to the West Indies and South America. Most of the major spices are produced in the East Indies and tropical Asia.
The Spice Trade
Spices from India, East Asia, and the East Indies were in demand from ancient times. These spices were carried by caravan across China and India to ports of the Mediterranean Sea or the Persian Gulf. Then, they were carried to the marketplaces of Athens, Rome, and other cities. These spices were sold at high prices.
Spices were also used to trade for other items. In 408, Alaric I, the first Germanic leader to take the city of Rome, is said to have demanded pepper as ransom. In the early Middle Ages, few spices reached the markets of Europe. The trade continued in the 9th century. The spice trade was active after the Crusades. In Western Europe, spices were wanted to add variety to their same old boring diet. In addition, the facilities to preserve food, especially meat, were poor.
Spices today are still important in trade. However, the per capita use as flavoring for food has declined in Western civilizations. Certain spices must compete with synthetic flavorings. The demand for spices is still huge in Asia. In Asia, spices have a bigger social and ceremonial importance compared to the West.
---

How is the information in the first passage similar to the information in the second passage?

A.
Both passages explain that herbs are leafy green plants.
B.
Both passages explain the history of spices, and spice trade.
C.
Both passages mention Sanskrit Ramayana and Genesis.
D.
Both passages mention per capita use of spice in the West.

Answer 9

I think it's B

Answer 10

tnx

Answer 11

nm :)

Answer 12

try this pls
i've got 20 questions xD

Answer 13

Whoa!a good practice for me indeed!lol :P

Answer 14

Excerpt from Nature by Design, by Bruce Brooks

1 One evening, when I was about five, I climbed up a ladder on the outside of a rickety old tobacco barn at sunset. The barn was part of a small farm near the home of a country relative my mother and I visited periodically; though we did not really know the farm’s family, I was allowed to roam, poke around, and conduct sudden studies of anything small and harmless. On this evening, as on most of my jaunts, I was not looking for anything: I was simply climbing with an open mind. But as I balanced on the next-to-the-top rung and inhaled the spicy stink of the tobacco drying inside, I did find something under the eaves—something very strange.

2 It appeared to be a kind of gray paper sphere, suspended from the dark planks by a thin stalk, like an apple made of ashes hanging on its stem. I studied it closely in the clear light. I saw that the bottom was a little ragged, and open. I could not tell if it had been torn, or if it had been made that way on purpose—for it was clear to me, as I studied it, that this thing had been made. This was no fruit or fungus. Its shape, rough but trim; its intricately colored surface with subtle swirls of gray and tan; and most of all the uncanny adhesiveness with which the perfectly tapered stem stuck against the rotten old pine boards—all of these features gave evidence of some intentional design. The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.

3 I assumed the designer was a human being: someone from the farm, someone wise and skilled in a craft that had so far escaped my curiosity. Even when I saw wasps entering and leaving the thing (during a vigil I kept every evening for two weeks), it did not occur to me that the wasps might have fashioned it for themselves. I assumed it was a man-made “wasp house” placed there expressly for the purpose of attracting a family of wasps, much as the “martin hotel,” a giant birdhouse on a pole near the farmhouse, was maintained to shelter migrant purple martins who returned every spring. I didn’t ask myself why anyone would want to give wasps a bivouac1; it seemed no more odd than attracting birds.

4 As I grew less wary of the wasps (and they grew less wary of me), and as my confidence on the ladder improved, I moved to the upper rung and peered through the sphere’s bottom. I could see that the paper swirled in layers around some secret center the wasps inhabited, and I marveled at the delicate hands of the craftsman who had devised such tiny apertures for their protection.

5 I left the area in the late summer, and in my imagination I took the strange structure with me. I envisioned unwrapping it, and in the middle finding – what? A tiny room full of bits of wool for sleeping, and countless manufactured pellets of scientifically determined wasp food? A glowing blue jewel that drew the wasps at twilight, and gave them a cool infusion of energy as they clung to it overnight? My most definite idea was that the wasps lived in a small block of the fine cedar that the craftsman had drilled full of holes, into which they slipped snugly, rather like the bunks aboard submarines in World War II movies.

6 As it turned out, I got the chance to discover that my idea of the cedar block had not been wrong by much. We visited our relative again in the winter. We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn. The shadows under the eaves were too dense to let me spot the sphere from far off. I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder—slick with frost—and climbed carefully up. My hands and feet kept slipping, so my eyes stayed on the rung ahead, and it was not until I was secure at the top that I could look up. The sphere was gone.

7 I was crushed. That object had fascinated me like nothing I had come across in my life; I had even grown to love wasps because of it. I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves. I’m afraid I pitied myself more than the apparently homeless wasps.

8 But then something snapped me out of my sense of loss: I recalled that I had watched the farmer taking in the purple martin hotel every November, after the birds left. From its spruce appearance when he brought it out in March, it was clear he had cleaned it and repainted it and kept it out of the weather. Of course he would do the same thing for this house, which was even more fragile. I had never mentioned the wasp dwelling to anyone, but now I decided I would go to the farm, introduce myself, and inquire about it. Perhaps I would even be permitted to handle it, or, best of all, learn how to make one myself.

9 I scrambled down the ladder, leaping from the third rung and landing in the frosty salad of tobacco leaves and windswept grass that collected at the foot of the barn wall. I looked down and saw that my left boot had, by no more than an inch, just missed crushing the very thing I was rushing off to seek. There, lying dry and separate on the leaves, was the wasp house.

From NATURE BY DESIGN © 1991 by Bruce Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Answer 15

What is the organizational structure of paragraphs 2, 3, 4, and 5?

A.
Paragraphs 2 and 4 describe the wasp house; paragraphs 3 and 5 describe a bird house.
B.
Paragraphs 2 and 4 describe how the wasps build a house; paragraphs 3 and 5 describe why they build a house.
C.
Paragraphs 2 and 4 describe what the boy saw; paragraphs 3 and 5 describe what the boy thought about.
D.
Paragraphs 2 and 4 describe what the boy understood; paragraphs 3 and 5 describe what the adult man now understands.

Answer 16

I think it's C certainly

Answer 17

ka NEEEEEEEXT xD

Answer 18

Excerpt from Nature by Design, by Bruce Brooks

1 One evening, when I was about five, I climbed up a ladder on the outside of a rickety old tobacco barn at sunset. The barn was part of a small farm near the home of a country relative my mother and I visited periodically; though we did not really know the farm’s family, I was allowed to roam, poke around, and conduct sudden studies of anything small and harmless. On this evening, as on most of my jaunts, I was not looking for anything: I was simply climbing with an open mind. But as I balanced on the next-to-the-top rung and inhaled the spicy stink of the tobacco drying inside, I did find something under the eaves—something very strange.

2 It appeared to be a kind of gray paper sphere, suspended from the dark planks by a thin stalk, like an apple made of ashes hanging on its stem. I studied it closely in the clear light. I saw that the bottom was a little ragged, and open. I could not tell if it had been torn, or if it had been made that way on purpose—for it was clear to me, as I studied it, that this thing had been made. This was no fruit or fungus. Its shape, rough but trim; its intricately colored surface with subtle swirls of gray and tan; and most of all the uncanny adhesiveness with which the perfectly tapered stem stuck against the rotten old pine boards—all of these features gave evidence of some intentional design. The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.

3 I assumed the designer was a human being: someone from the farm, someone wise and skilled in a craft that had so far escaped my curiosity. Even when I saw wasps entering and leaving the thing (during a vigil I kept every evening for two weeks), it did not occur to me that the wasps might have fashioned it for themselves. I assumed it was a man-made “wasp house” placed there expressly for the purpose of attracting a family of wasps, much as the “martin hotel,” a giant birdhouse on a pole near the farmhouse, was maintained to shelter migrant purple martins who returned every spring. I didn’t ask myself why anyone would want to give wasps a bivouac1; it seemed no more odd than attracting birds.

4 As I grew less wary of the wasps (and they grew less wary of me), and as my confidence on the ladder improved, I moved to the upper rung and peered through the sphere’s bottom. I could see that the paper swirled in layers around some secret center the wasps inhabited, and I marveled at the delicate hands of the craftsman who had devised such tiny apertures for their protection.

5 I left the area in the late summer, and in my imagination I took the strange structure with me. I envisioned unwrapping it, and in the middle finding – what? A tiny room full of bits of wool for sleeping, and countless manufactured pellets of scientifically determined wasp food? A glowing blue jewel that drew the wasps at twilight, and gave them a cool infusion of energy as they clung to it overnight? My most definite idea was that the wasps lived in a small block of the fine cedar that the craftsman had drilled full of holes, into which they slipped snugly, rather like the bunks aboard submarines in World War II movies.

6 As it turned out, I got the chance to discover that my idea of the cedar block had not been wrong by much. We visited our relative again in the winter. We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn. The shadows under the eaves were too dense to let me spot the sphere from far off. I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder—slick with frost—and climbed carefully up. My hands and feet kept slipping, so my eyes stayed on the rung ahead, and it was not until I was secure at the top that I could look up. The sphere was gone.

7 I was crushed. That object had fascinated me like nothing I had come across in my life; I had even grown to love wasps because of it. I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves. I’m afraid I pitied myself more than the apparently homeless wasps.

8 But then something snapped me out of my sense of loss: I recalled that I had watched the farmer taking in the purple martin hotel every November, after the birds left. From its spruce appearance when he brought it out in March, it was clear he had cleaned it and repainted it and kept it out of the weather. Of course he would do the same thing for this house, which was even more fragile. I had never mentioned the wasp dwelling to anyone, but now I decided I would go to the farm, introduce myself, and inquire about it. Perhaps I would even be permitted to handle it, or, best of all, learn how to make one myself.

9 I scrambled down the ladder, leaping from the third rung and landing in the frosty salad of tobacco leaves and windswept grass that collected at the foot of the barn wall. I looked down and saw that my left boot had, by no more than an inch, just missed crushing the very thing I was rushing off to seek. There, lying dry and separate on the leaves, was the wasp house.

From NATURE BY DESIGN © 1991 by Bruce Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Answer 19

Which quotation from the passage best supports how the young boy feels when he discovers that the wasp house is gone?


A.
“That object had fascinated me“
B.
“I had even grown to love wasps”
C.
“I was crushed”
D.
“like nothing I had come across in my life”

Answer 20

bring it on!:)

Answer 21

you got it

Answer 22

um....I think it's C coz the main emotion was sadness and grief...

Answer 23

._. i didn't read it was it sad?

Answer 24

Dear Mr. Lester,
We’re contacting you today to let you know about the Special Olympics annual fund drive. You’ve been kind enough to support us generously in the past, and we’d like to ask for your help again, as we send our athletes with special needs to compete at the national level. Please fill out the form below and return it in the enclosed envelope with your donation. It will make a child’s day if you do.
Many thanks,
John Allen, Director
Special Olympics
---

Answer 25

This fundraising letter evokes what kind of tone?

A.
envious
B.
inquisitive
C.
polite
D.
annoying

Answer 26

not actually sad...but yes he was kinda devastated...n Josh that's really bad..atleast read it once!:)

Answer 27

brb xD k i'll read this 1 i use this site as a cheat sheet :) not in school obviously

Answer 28

inquisitive...he was curious about that weird thingy...

Answer 29

lol...true!

Answer 30

anymore?

Answer 31

ok i'm back

Answer 32

yeah

i said 20 xD

Answer 33

Excerpt from Nature by Design, by Bruce Brooks

1 One evening, when I was about five, I climbed up a ladder on the outside of a rickety old tobacco barn at sunset. The barn was part of a small farm near the home of a country relative my mother and I visited periodically; though we did not really know the farm’s family, I was allowed to roam, poke around, and conduct sudden studies of anything small and harmless. On this evening, as on most of my jaunts, I was not looking for anything: I was simply climbing with an open mind. But as I balanced on the next-to-the-top rung and inhaled the spicy stink of the tobacco drying inside, I did find something under the eaves—something very strange.

2 It appeared to be a kind of gray paper sphere, suspended from the dark planks by a thin stalk, like an apple made of ashes hanging on its stem. I studied it closely in the clear light. I saw that the bottom was a little ragged, and open. I could not tell if it had been torn, or if it had been made that way on purpose—for it was clear to me, as I studied it, that this thing had been made. This was no fruit or fungus. Its shape, rough but trim; its intricately colored surface with subtle swirls of gray and tan; and most of all the uncanny adhesiveness with which the perfectly tapered stem stuck against the rotten old pine boards—all of these features gave evidence of some intentional design. The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.

3 I assumed the designer was a human being: someone from the farm, someone wise and skilled in a craft that had so far escaped my curiosity. Even when I saw wasps entering and leaving the thing (during a vigil I kept every evening for two weeks), it did not occur to me that the wasps might have fashioned it for themselves. I assumed it was a man-made “wasp house” placed there expressly for the purpose of attracting a family of wasps, much as the “martin hotel,” a giant birdhouse on a pole near the farmhouse, was maintained to shelter migrant purple martins who returned every spring. I didn’t ask myself why anyone would want to give wasps a bivouac1; it seemed no more odd than attracting birds.

4 As I grew less wary of the wasps (and they grew less wary of me), and as my confidence on the ladder improved, I moved to the upper rung and peered through the sphere’s bottom. I could see that the paper swirled in layers around some secret center the wasps inhabited, and I marveled at the delicate hands of the craftsman who had devised such tiny apertures for their protection.

5 I left the area in the late summer, and in my imagination I took the strange structure with me. I envisioned unwrapping it, and in the middle finding – what? A tiny room full of bits of wool for sleeping, and countless manufactured pellets of scientifically determined wasp food? A glowing blue jewel that drew the wasps at twilight, and gave them a cool infusion of energy as they clung to it overnight? My most definite idea was that the wasps lived in a small block of the fine cedar that the craftsman had drilled full of holes, into which they slipped snugly, rather like the bunks aboard submarines in World War II movies.

6 As it turned out, I got the chance to discover that my idea of the cedar block had not been wrong by much. We visited our relative again in the winter. We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn. The shadows under the eaves were too dense to let me spot the sphere from far off. I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder—slick with frost—and climbed carefully up. My hands and feet kept slipping, so my eyes stayed on the rung ahead, and it was not until I was secure at the top that I could look up. The sphere was gone.

7 I was crushed. That object had fascinated me like nothing I had come across in my life; I had even grown to love wasps because of it. I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves. I’m afraid I pitied myself more than the apparently homeless wasps.

8 But then something snapped me out of my sense of loss: I recalled that I had watched the farmer taking in the purple martin hotel every November, after the birds left. From its spruce appearance when he brought it out in March, it was clear he had cleaned it and repainted it and kept it out of the weather. Of course he would do the same thing for this house, which was even more fragile. I had never mentioned the wasp dwelling to anyone, but now I decided I would go to the farm, introduce myself, and inquire about it. Perhaps I would even be permitted to handle it, or, best of all, learn how to make one myself.

9 I scrambled down the ladder, leaping from the third rung and landing in the frosty salad of tobacco leaves and windswept grass that collected at the foot of the barn wall. I looked down and saw that my left boot had, by no more than an inch, just missed crushing the very thing I was rushing off to seek. There, lying dry and separate on the leaves, was the wasp house.

From NATURE BY DESIGN © 1991 by Bruce Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Answer 34

Which detail from the passage provides the best support for the central ideas of the passage?

A.
The compact shape, the color changes on the surface, and the sticky stem holding it in place convince the narrator that the wasp house hadn’t just grown but someone had made it.
B.
Although the narrator’s visit to his country relative ends in late summer, he does not forget about the wasp house.
C.
The narrator becomes more comfortable near the wasps, and the wasps become used to having the narrator observing them.
D.
Although the narrator does not know the family living next to his country relative very well, they let him walk around their farm.

Answer 35

okay..m sorry i didn'tread the letter...it's polite,not inquisitive....

Answer 36

good thing i can go back

Answer 37

B seems sensible

Answer 38

k tnx

Answer 39

Decorating cupcakes is a fun activity that is easier than it looks, especially if you have stocked your pantry with many different kinds of candy and cookies. All you will need is some freezer-weight plastic zipper bags, a package of food coloring, some colorful cupcake liners, a can of prepared frosting, and a box of cake mix.
First, you need to make the cupcakes. You don't want to frost them until they have completely cooled. Make sure you fill each paper liner about two-thirds full. That way the cake will rise just to the top of the liner and not leave a mound of cake. Follow the instructions on the box and then let the cupcakes cool on a rack. Once the cupcakes are cool, you're ready to begin decorating.
Let's say you want to make some ant cupcakes for a picnic you are invited to attend. First, you need to cover the cupcakes with green icing for the grass. Scoop about half the can of icing into a dish and squirt a few drops of green food coloring into it. Stir it with a spoon until the color is the shade you want. Use a knife or spatula to spread the icing on top of the cupcakes.
Now, to make the ants, you need some chocolate-covered almonds. Put three in a row on each green-covered cupcake to make the head, abdomen, and thorax of the ant. Then, put an unwrapped chocolate bar into a plastic bag and microwave it for a few seconds. Snip off the corner of the sealed bag and carefully squirt thin lines to make the legs and the antennas. Repeat until all the cupcakes are decorated, and you will be the most popular person at the picnic!
---

Answer 40

Which of the following quotes best explains the author’s purpose?

A.
Decorating cupcakes is a fun activity that is easier than it looks
B.
Make sure you fill each paper liner about two-thirds full.
C.
Repeat until all the cupcakes are decorated, and you will be the most popular person at the picnic!
D.
Use a knife or spatula to spread the icing on top of the cupcakes.

Answer 41

it's A...and mind you Josh..medal all my answers!:P

Answer 42

sorry this counts as all the same question to the system but i will amap

Answer 43

all right..:)

Answer 44

Decorating cupcakes is a fun activity that is easier than it looks, especially if you have stocked your pantry with many different kinds of candy and cookies. All you will need is some freezer-weight plastic zipper bags, a package of food coloring, some colorful cupcake liners, a can of prepared frosting, and a box of cake mix.
First, you need to make the cupcakes. You don't want to frost them until they have completely cooled. Make sure you fill each paper liner about two-thirds full. That way the cake will rise just to the top of the liner and not leave a mound of cake. Follow the instructions on the box and then let the cupcakes cool on a rack. Once the cupcakes are cool, you're ready to begin decorating.
Let's say you want to make some ant cupcakes for a picnic you are invited to attend. First, you need to cover the cupcakes with green icing for the grass. Scoop about half the can of icing into a dish and squirt a few drops of green food coloring into it. Stir it with a spoon until the color is the shade you want. Use a knife or spatula to spread the icing on top of the cupcakes.
Now, to make the ants, you need some chocolate-covered almonds. Put three in a row on each green-covered cupcake to make the head, abdomen, and thorax of the ant. Then, put an unwrapped chocolate bar into a plastic bag and microwave it for a few seconds. Snip off the corner of the sealed bag and carefully squirt thin lines to make the legs and the antennas. Repeat until all the cupcakes are decorated, and you will be the most popular person at the picnic!
---

Answer 45

The purpose of a newspaper article on the front page would most likely be to

A.
narrate to the reader the opinions of the chief editor.
B.
inform the reader about an important news story.
C.
entertain the reader with exciting pictures and stories.
D.
persuade the reader to subscribe to the newspaper.

Answer 46

where's the article Josh?

Answer 47

sorry

must not've gone through

Answer 48

Decorating cupcakes is a fun activity that is easier than it looks, especially if you have stocked your pantry with many different kinds of candy and cookies. All you will need is some freezer-weight plastic zipper bags, a package of food coloring, some colorful cupcake liners, a can of prepared frosting, and a box of cake mix.
First, you need to make the cupcakes. You don't want to frost them until they have completely cooled. Make sure you fill each paper liner about two-thirds full. That way the cake will rise just to the top of the liner and not leave a mound of cake. Follow the instructions on the box and then let the cupcakes cool on a rack. Once the cupcakes are cool, you're ready to begin decorating.
Let's say you want to make some ant cupcakes for a picnic you are invited to attend. First, you need to cover the cupcakes with green icing for the grass. Scoop about half the can of icing into a dish and squirt a few drops of green food coloring into it. Stir it with a spoon until the color is the shade you want. Use a knife or spatula to spread the icing on top of the cupcakes.
Now, to make the ants, you need some chocolate-covered almonds. Put three in a row on each green-covered cupcake to make the head, abdomen, and thorax of the ant. Then, put an unwrapped chocolate bar into a plastic bag and microwave it for a few seconds. Snip off the corner of the sealed bag and carefully squirt thin lines to make the legs and the antennas. Repeat until all the cupcakes are decorated, and you will be the most popular person at the picnic!
---

Answer 49

it's the same artical

Answer 50

oh..sorry..

Answer 51

xD i read em after i put em here so i didn't notice either

Answer 52

lol

Answer 53

I dunno this one...could be either C or D....C seems more appropriate..but again you don't know the actual motives:P

Answer 54

i think it might be a ._.

Answer 55

not sure cd or a

Answer 56

i don't think so for a...i mean it's not like a reader is ever bothered about the chief editor's opinion....i am not ,certainly!:P

Answer 57

so what do you think is the one?

Answer 58

I think it's C (provided there are pictures along with the article)
But if you are business-minded then it's D....i vote for D

Answer 59

Excerpt from Nature by Design, by Bruce Brooks

1 One evening, when I was about five, I climbed up a ladder on the outside of a rickety old tobacco barn at sunset. The barn was part of a small farm near the home of a country relative my mother and I visited periodically; though we did not really know the farm’s family, I was allowed to roam, poke around, and conduct sudden studies of anything small and harmless. On this evening, as on most of my jaunts, I was not looking for anything: I was simply climbing with an open mind. But as I balanced on the next-to-the-top rung and inhaled the spicy stink of the tobacco drying inside, I did find something under the eaves—something very strange.

2 It appeared to be a kind of gray paper sphere, suspended from the dark planks by a thin stalk, like an apple made of ashes hanging on its stem. I studied it closely in the clear light. I saw that the bottom was a little ragged, and open. I could not tell if it had been torn, or if it had been made that way on purpose—for it was clear to me, as I studied it, that this thing had been made. This was no fruit or fungus. Its shape, rough but trim; its intricately colored surface with subtle swirls of gray and tan; and most of all the uncanny adhesiveness with which the perfectly tapered stem stuck against the rotten old pine boards—all of these features gave evidence of some intentional design. The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.

3 I assumed the designer was a human being: someone from the farm, someone wise and skilled in a craft that had so far escaped my curiosity. Even when I saw wasps entering and leaving the thing (during a vigil I kept every evening for two weeks), it did not occur to me that the wasps might have fashioned it for themselves. I assumed it was a man-made “wasp house” placed there expressly for the purpose of attracting a family of wasps, much as the “martin hotel,” a giant birdhouse on a pole near the farmhouse, was maintained to shelter migrant purple martins who returned every spring. I didn’t ask myself why anyone would want to give wasps a bivouac1; it seemed no more odd than attracting birds.

4 As I grew less wary of the wasps (and they grew less wary of me), and as my confidence on the ladder improved, I moved to the upper rung and peered through the sphere’s bottom. I could see that the paper swirled in layers around some secret center the wasps inhabited, and I marveled at the delicate hands of the craftsman who had devised such tiny apertures for their protection.

5 I left the area in the late summer, and in my imagination I took the strange structure with me. I envisioned unwrapping it, and in the middle finding – what? A tiny room full of bits of wool for sleeping, and countless manufactured pellets of scientifically determined wasp food? A glowing blue jewel that drew the wasps at twilight, and gave them a cool infusion of energy as they clung to it overnight? My most definite idea was that the wasps lived in a small block of the fine cedar that the craftsman had drilled full of holes, into which they slipped snugly, rather like the bunks aboard submarines in World War II movies.

6 As it turned out, I got the chance to discover that my idea of the cedar block had not been wrong by much. We visited our relative again in the winter. We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn. The shadows under the eaves were too dense to let me spot the sphere from far off. I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder—slick with frost—and climbed carefully up. My hands and feet kept slipping, so my eyes stayed on the rung ahead, and it was not until I was secure at the top that I could look up. The sphere was gone.

7 I was crushed. That object had fascinated me like nothing I had come across in my life; I had even grown to love wasps because of it. I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves. I’m afraid I pitied myself more than the apparently homeless wasps.

8 But then something snapped me out of my sense of loss: I recalled that I had watched the farmer taking in the purple martin hotel every November, after the birds left. From its spruce appearance when he brought it out in March, it was clear he had cleaned it and repainted it and kept it out of the weather. Of course he would do the same thing for this house, which was even more fragile. I had never mentioned the wasp dwelling to anyone, but now I decided I would go to the farm, introduce myself, and inquire about it. Perhaps I would even be permitted to handle it, or, best of all, learn how to make one myself.

9 I scrambled down the ladder, leaping from the third rung and landing in the frosty salad of tobacco leaves and windswept grass that collected at the foot of the barn wall. I looked down and saw that my left boot had, by no more than an inch, just missed crushing the very thing I was rushing off to seek. There, lying dry and separate on the leaves, was the wasp house.

From NATURE BY DESIGN © 1991 by Bruce Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Answer 60

How does the young boy feel when he first discovers that the wasp house is gone?

A.
He is extremely disappointed that the wasp house is missing.
B.
He is worried that the wasps do not have a home.
C.
He is very relieved that someone may have moved the wasp house to a safer place.
D.
He is hopeful that the wasps will build another house the next year.

Answer 61

i think this is another one with the same artical as another

Answer 62

It's A

Answer 63

k tnx

Answer 64

yeah..it's the third time u have posted the same five year old bot article.

Answer 65

so....that's it???lol

Answer 66

w8 i dunno

Answer 67

Excerpt from Nature by Design, by Bruce Brooks

1 One evening, when I was about five, I climbed up a ladder on the outside of a rickety old tobacco barn at sunset. The barn was part of a small farm near the home of a country relative my mother and I visited periodically; though we did not really know the farm’s family, I was allowed to roam, poke around, and conduct sudden studies of anything small and harmless. On this evening, as on most of my jaunts, I was not looking for anything: I was simply climbing with an open mind. But as I balanced on the next-to-the-top rung and inhaled the spicy stink of the tobacco drying inside, I did find something under the eaves—something very strange.

2 It appeared to be a kind of gray paper sphere, suspended from the dark planks by a thin stalk, like an apple made of ashes hanging on its stem. I studied it closely in the clear light. I saw that the bottom was a little ragged, and open. I could not tell if it had been torn, or if it had been made that way on purpose—for it was clear to me, as I studied it, that this thing had been made. This was no fruit or fungus. Its shape, rough but trim; its intricately colored surface with subtle swirls of gray and tan; and most of all the uncanny adhesiveness with which the perfectly tapered stem stuck against the rotten old pine boards—all of these features gave evidence of some intentional design. The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.

3 I assumed the designer was a human being: someone from the farm, someone wise and skilled in a craft that had so far escaped my curiosity. Even when I saw wasps entering and leaving the thing (during a vigil I kept every evening for two weeks), it did not occur to me that the wasps might have fashioned it for themselves. I assumed it was a man-made “wasp house” placed there expressly for the purpose of attracting a family of wasps, much as the “martin hotel,” a giant birdhouse on a pole near the farmhouse, was maintained to shelter migrant purple martins who returned every spring. I didn’t ask myself why anyone would want to give wasps a bivouac1; it seemed no more odd than attracting birds.

4 As I grew less wary of the wasps (and they grew less wary of me), and as my confidence on the ladder improved, I moved to the upper rung and peered through the sphere’s bottom. I could see that the paper swirled in layers around some secret center the wasps inhabited, and I marveled at the delicate hands of the craftsman who had devised such tiny apertures for their protection.

5 I left the area in the late summer, and in my imagination I took the strange structure with me. I envisioned unwrapping it, and in the middle finding – what? A tiny room full of bits of wool for sleeping, and countless manufactured pellets of scientifically determined wasp food? A glowing blue jewel that drew the wasps at twilight, and gave them a cool infusion of energy as they clung to it overnight? My most definite idea was that the wasps lived in a small block of the fine cedar that the craftsman had drilled full of holes, into which they slipped snugly, rather like the bunks aboard submarines in World War II movies.

6 As it turned out, I got the chance to discover that my idea of the cedar block had not been wrong by much. We visited our relative again in the winter. We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn. The shadows under the eaves were too dense to let me spot the sphere from far off. I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder—slick with frost—and climbed carefully up. My hands and feet kept slipping, so my eyes stayed on the rung ahead, and it was not until I was secure at the top that I could look up. The sphere was gone.

7 I was crushed. That object had fascinated me like nothing I had come across in my life; I had even grown to love wasps because of it. I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves. I’m afraid I pitied myself more than the apparently homeless wasps.

8 But then something snapped me out of my sense of loss: I recalled that I had watched the farmer taking in the purple martin hotel every November, after the birds left. From its spruce appearance when he brought it out in March, it was clear he had cleaned it and repainted it and kept it out of the weather. Of course he would do the same thing for this house, which was even more fragile. I had never mentioned the wasp dwelling to anyone, but now I decided I would go to the farm, introduce myself, and inquire about it. Perhaps I would even be permitted to handle it, or, best of all, learn how to make one myself.

9 I scrambled down the ladder, leaping from the third rung and landing in the frosty salad of tobacco leaves and windswept grass that collected at the foot of the barn wall. I looked down and saw that my left boot had, by no more than an inch, just missed crushing the very thing I was rushing off to seek. There, lying dry and separate on the leaves, was the wasp house.

From NATURE BY DESIGN © 1991 by Bruce Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved. NOPE

Answer 68

u dunno if u got more questions???

Answer 69

Which detail from the passage best supports what the reader learns about the young boy's character that has the greatest influence on the events of the passage?

A.
“I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves.”
B.
“The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.”
C.
“This was no fruit or fungus.”
D.
“We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn.”

Answer 70

i MAAAAAY have more

Answer 71

gad!!not the same article again???

Answer 72

nope xD

Answer 73

w8 that's the one i didn't read yeah that's the same 1 xD

Answer 74

thought ya left

Answer 75

m still there...just started reading another question..sorry:)

Answer 76

It's D ...It shows how deeply he was concerned and intrigued and influenced...

Answer 77

k tnx next!

Answer 78

Passage 1
Talking about Spices
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in small quantities. A spice is used as a food additive for flavoring. Sometimes a spice is used as a preservative. Spice kills or prevents the growth of harmful bacteria. Many spices are also used for medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfume, or as vegetables.

In the kitchen, spices are used differently than herbs. Herbs are leafy, green plant parts used for flavoring purposes. Herbs, such as basil or oregano, may be used fresh. Herbs are commonly chopped into smaller pieces. Spices are dried and often ground or grated into a powder. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are used both whole and in powder form.
The spice trade developed throughout the Middle East around 2000 BC with cinnamon, Indonesian cinnamon, and pepper. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that the clove could have been introduced to the Middle East very early on. The clove is indigenous to the Indonesian island of Ternate in the Maluku Islands. Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen dated to
1700 BC. The burnt clove was found in the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in what is now modern-day Syria. Spices are also mentioned in many ancient texts. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.
In South Asia, nutmeg has a Sanskrit name. Nutmeg originates from the Banda Islands in the Moluccas. Sanskrit is the language of the sacred Hindu texts. Thus, we know how long nutmeg has been used in South Asia. Historians estimate that nutmeg was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BC. The ancient Indian epic of Ramayana mentions cloves. It is known that the Romans had cloves in the 1st century AD because Pliny the Elder spoke of them in his writings.
Passage 2
What is a spice?
Spice is an aromatic vegetable product used as a flavoring or condiment. In the past, the term "spice(s)" meant pungent or aromatic foods (e.g., gingerbread and currants). The word "spice(s)" was used to describe ingredients used to make incense and/or perfume (e.g., myrrh); "spice(s)" was also used to describe embalming agents. Today, "spice(s)" refers to flavorings used in food or drinks. Many spices still have additional uses as ingredients of medicines, perfumes, incense, and soaps.
Spices include stimulating condiments (e.g., pepper, mustard, and horseradish), aromatic spices (e.g. cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and mace), and sweet herbs (e.g., thyme, marjoram, sage, and mint). Spices are taken from the part of the plant that is the richest in flavor. This part may be bark, stem, flower bud, fruit, seed, or leaf. Spices are very commonly used in the form of a powder. Many spices are used whole.
Garlic, chives, caraway, mustard, and many herbs grow in temperate regions. Vanilla, allspice, and red pepper are indigenous to the West Indies and South America. Most of the major spices are produced in the East Indies and tropical Asia.
The Spice Trade
Spices from India, East Asia, and the East Indies were in demand from ancient times. These spices were carried by caravan across China and India to ports of the Mediterranean Sea or the Persian Gulf. Then, they were carried to the marketplaces of Athens, Rome, and other cities. These spices were sold at high prices.
Spices were also used to trade for other items. In 408, Alaric I, the first Germanic leader to take the city of Rome, is said to have demanded pepper as ransom. In the early Middle Ages, few spices reached the markets of Europe. The trade continued in the 9th century. The spice trade was active after the Crusades. In Western Europe, spices were wanted to add variety to their same old boring diet. In addition, the facilities to preserve food, especially meat, were poor.
Spices today are still important in trade. However, the per capita use as flavoring for food has declined in Western civilizations. Certain spices must compete with synthetic flavorings. The demand for spices is still huge in Asia. In Asia, spices have a bigger social and ceremonial importance compared to the West.
---

Answer 79

How does the information in the first passage differ from the information in the second passage?

A.
The first passage explains spices from the Eastern perspective and history; the second passage focuses on the Western history.
B.
The second passage mentions the terminologies that were used to describe spices; the first passage explains scientific names.
C.
The first passage mentions religious texts to explain the history of spices; the second passage doesn't mention any texts.
D.
The first passage would be more helpful for a history paper; the second passage would be more helpful for a science project.

Answer 80

I guess it's D...bruh..was such a boring passage!

Answer 81

yeah

Answer 82

oh yeah...like u read it???

Answer 83

yeah

Answer 84

Dear Mr. Lester,
We’re contacting you today to let you know about the Special Olympics annual fund drive. You’ve been kind enough to support us generously in the past, and we’d like to ask for your help again, as we send our athletes with special needs to compete at the national level. Please fill out the form below and return it in the enclosed envelope with your donation. It will make a child’s day if you do.
Many thanks,
John Allen, Director
Special Olympics
---

Answer 85

he formal tone of the above letter would also be appropriate in which of these situations?

A.
a note from an older sister, telling her little brother not to eat all the cake
B.
a letter from a student, thanking a company for giving him a scholarship
C.
a note from a coach to an athlete, chiding her for always being late to practice
D.
a letter to the editor, complaining about the city's strict water use policies

Answer 86

It's certainly B...the tone seems to be overflowing with gratitude:P

Answer 87

Excerpt from Nature by Design, by Bruce Brooks

1 One evening, when I was about five, I climbed up a ladder on the outside of a rickety old tobacco barn at sunset. The barn was part of a small farm near the home of a country relative my mother and I visited periodically; though we did not really know the farm’s family, I was allowed to roam, poke around, and conduct sudden studies of anything small and harmless. On this evening, as on most of my jaunts, I was not looking for anything: I was simply climbing with an open mind. But as I balanced on the next-to-the-top rung and inhaled the spicy stink of the tobacco drying inside, I did find something under the eaves—something very strange.

2 It appeared to be a kind of gray paper sphere, suspended from the dark planks by a thin stalk, like an apple made of ashes hanging on its stem. I studied it closely in the clear light. I saw that the bottom was a little ragged, and open. I could not tell if it had been torn, or if it had been made that way on purpose—for it was clear to me, as I studied it, that this thing had been made. This was no fruit or fungus. Its shape, rough but trim; its intricately colored surface with subtle swirls of gray and tan; and most of all the uncanny adhesiveness with which the perfectly tapered stem stuck against the rotten old pine boards—all of these features gave evidence of some intentional design. The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.

3 I assumed the designer was a human being: someone from the farm, someone wise and skilled in a craft that had so far escaped my curiosity. Even when I saw wasps entering and leaving the thing (during a vigil I kept every evening for two weeks), it did not occur to me that the wasps might have fashioned it for themselves. I assumed it was a man-made “wasp house” placed there expressly for the purpose of attracting a family of wasps, much as the “martin hotel,” a giant birdhouse on a pole near the farmhouse, was maintained to shelter migrant purple martins who returned every spring. I didn’t ask myself why anyone would want to give wasps a bivouac1; it seemed no more odd than attracting birds.

4 As I grew less wary of the wasps (and they grew less wary of me), and as my confidence on the ladder improved, I moved to the upper rung and peered through the sphere’s bottom. I could see that the paper swirled in layers around some secret center the wasps inhabited, and I marveled at the delicate hands of the craftsman who had devised such tiny apertures for their protection.

5 I left the area in the late summer, and in my imagination I took the strange structure with me. I envisioned unwrapping it, and in the middle finding – what? A tiny room full of bits of wool for sleeping, and countless manufactured pellets of scientifically determined wasp food? A glowing blue jewel that drew the wasps at twilight, and gave them a cool infusion of energy as they clung to it overnight? My most definite idea was that the wasps lived in a small block of the fine cedar that the craftsman had drilled full of holes, into which they slipped snugly, rather like the bunks aboard submarines in World War II movies.

6 As it turned out, I got the chance to discover that my idea of the cedar block had not been wrong by much. We visited our relative again in the winter. We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn. The shadows under the eaves were too dense to let me spot the sphere from far off. I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder—slick with frost—and climbed carefully up. My hands and feet kept slipping, so my eyes stayed on the rung ahead, and it was not until I was secure at the top that I could look up. The sphere was gone.

7 I was crushed. That object had fascinated me like nothing I had come across in my life; I had even grown to love wasps because of it. I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves. I’m afraid I pitied myself more than the apparently homeless wasps.

8 But then something snapped me out of my sense of loss: I recalled that I had watched the farmer taking in the purple martin hotel every November, after the birds left. From its spruce appearance when he brought it out in March, it was clear he had cleaned it and repainted it and kept it out of the weather. Of course he would do the same thing for this house, which was even more fragile. I had never mentioned the wasp dwelling to anyone, but now I decided I would go to the farm, introduce myself, and inquire about it. Perhaps I would even be permitted to handle it, or, best of all, learn how to make one myself.

9 I scrambled down the ladder, leaping from the third rung and landing in the frosty salad of tobacco leaves and windswept grass that collected at the foot of the barn wall. I looked down and saw that my left boot had, by no more than an inch, just missed crushing the very thing I was rushing off to seek. There, lying dry and separate on the leaves, was the wasp house.

From NATURE BY DESIGN © 1991 by Bruce Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Answer 88

not again?just post all the questions related to this article together Josh....It's kinda boring to read it again and again....

Answer 89

but what's the question????

Answer 90

Why does it seem logical to the narrator that a human being made the wasp house? Choose a reason found in the passage.

A.
The wasps become used to having a nearby visitor watching them.
B.
The wasp house has been placed near the top of the barn.
C.
The center of the wasp house remains an unseen mystery.
D.
The wasp house has been designed and built in a complicated way.

Answer 91

sorry i was afk tnx for waiting

Answer 92

nm:) It's D

Answer 93

this is a long 1

Answer 94

Passage 1
Talking about Spices
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in small quantities. A spice is used as a food additive for flavoring. Sometimes a spice is used as a preservative. Spice kills or prevents the growth of harmful bacteria. Many spices are also used for medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfume, or as vegetables.

In the kitchen, spices are used differently than herbs. Herbs are leafy, green plant parts used for flavoring purposes. Herbs, such as basil or oregano, may be used fresh. Herbs are commonly chopped into smaller pieces. Spices are dried and often ground or grated into a powder. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are used both whole and in powder form.
The spice trade developed throughout the Middle East around 2000 BC with cinnamon, Indonesian cinnamon, and pepper. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that the clove could have been introduced to the Middle East very early on. The clove is indigenous to the Indonesian island of Ternate in the Maluku Islands. Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen dated to
1700 BC. The burnt clove was found in the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in what is now modern-day Syria. Spices are also mentioned in many ancient texts. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.
In South Asia, nutmeg has a Sanskrit name. Nutmeg originates from the Banda Islands in the Moluccas. Sanskrit is the language of the sacred Hindu texts. Thus, we know how long nutmeg has been used in South Asia. Historians estimate that nutmeg was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BC. The ancient Indian epic of Ramayana mentions cloves. It is known that the Romans had cloves in the 1st century AD because Pliny the Elder spoke of them in his writings.
Passage 2
What is a spice?
Spice is an aromatic vegetable product used as a flavoring or condiment. In the past, the term "spice(s)" meant pungent or aromatic foods (e.g., gingerbread and currants). The word "spice(s)" was used to describe ingredients used to make incense and/or perfume (e.g., myrrh); "spice(s)" was also used to describe embalming agents. Today, "spice(s)" refers to flavorings used in food or drinks. Many spices still have additional uses as ingredients of medicines, perfumes, incense, and soaps.
Spices include stimulating condiments (e.g., pepper, mustard, and horseradish), aromatic spices (e.g. cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and mace), and sweet herbs (e.g., thyme, marjoram, sage, and mint). Spices are taken from the part of the plant that is the richest in flavor. This part may be bark, stem, flower bud, fruit, seed, or leaf. Spices are very commonly used in the form of a powder. Many spices are used whole.
Garlic, chives, caraway, mustard, and many herbs grow in temperate regions. Vanilla, allspice, and red pepper are indigenous to the West Indies and South America. Most of the major spices are produced in the East Indies and tropical Asia.
The Spice Trade
Spices from India, East Asia, and the East Indies were in demand from ancient times. These spices were carried by caravan across China and India to ports of the Mediterranean Sea or the Persian Gulf. Then, they were carried to the marketplaces of Athens, Rome, and other cities. These spices were sold at high prices.
Spices were also used to trade for other items. In 408, Alaric I, the first Germanic leader to take the city of Rome, is said to have demanded pepper as ransom. In the early Middle Ages, few spices reached the markets of Europe. The trade continued in the 9th century. The spice trade was active after the Crusades. In Western Europe, spices were wanted to add variety to their same old boring diet. In addition, the facilities to preserve food, especially meat, were poor.
Spices today are still important in trade. However, the per capita use as flavoring for food has declined in Western civilizations. Certain spices must compete with synthetic flavorings. The demand for spices is still huge in Asia. In Asia, spices have a bigger social and ceremonial importance compared to the West.
---

Answer 95

Using information from both sources, what conclusion can the reader draw about spices?

A.
Alaric I loved spices.
B.
Spices help preserve food.
C.
Spices are good for your heart.
D.
Nobody cares about spices.

Answer 96

umm....guess it's B..seems most appropriate..though personally i wud wanna vote for D..:P

Answer 97

Excerpt from Nature by Design, by Bruce Brooks

1 One evening, when I was about five, I climbed up a ladder on the outside of a rickety old tobacco barn at sunset. The barn was part of a small farm near the home of a country relative my mother and I visited periodically; though we did not really know the farm’s family, I was allowed to roam, poke around, and conduct sudden studies of anything small and harmless. On this evening, as on most of my jaunts, I was not looking for anything: I was simply climbing with an open mind. But as I balanced on the next-to-the-top rung and inhaled the spicy stink of the tobacco drying inside, I did find something under the eaves—something very strange.

2 It appeared to be a kind of gray paper sphere, suspended from the dark planks by a thin stalk, like an apple made of ashes hanging on its stem. I studied it closely in the clear light. I saw that the bottom was a little ragged, and open. I could not tell if it had been torn, or if it had been made that way on purpose—for it was clear to me, as I studied it, that this thing had been made. This was no fruit or fungus. Its shape, rough but trim; its intricately colored surface with subtle swirls of gray and tan; and most of all the uncanny adhesiveness with which the perfectly tapered stem stuck against the rotten old pine boards—all of these features gave evidence of some intentional design. The troubling thing was figuring out who had designed it, and why.

3 I assumed the designer was a human being: someone from the farm, someone wise and skilled in a craft that had so far escaped my curiosity. Even when I saw wasps entering and leaving the thing (during a vigil I kept every evening for two weeks), it did not occur to me that the wasps might have fashioned it for themselves. I assumed it was a man-made “wasp house” placed there expressly for the purpose of attracting a family of wasps, much as the “martin hotel,” a giant birdhouse on a pole near the farmhouse, was maintained to shelter migrant purple martins who returned every spring. I didn’t ask myself why anyone would want to give wasps a bivouac1; it seemed no more odd than attracting birds.

4 As I grew less wary of the wasps (and they grew less wary of me), and as my confidence on the ladder improved, I moved to the upper rung and peered through the sphere’s bottom. I could see that the paper swirled in layers around some secret center the wasps inhabited, and I marveled at the delicate hands of the craftsman who had devised such tiny apertures for their protection.

5 I left the area in the late summer, and in my imagination I took the strange structure with me. I envisioned unwrapping it, and in the middle finding – what? A tiny room full of bits of wool for sleeping, and countless manufactured pellets of scientifically determined wasp food? A glowing blue jewel that drew the wasps at twilight, and gave them a cool infusion of energy as they clung to it overnight? My most definite idea was that the wasps lived in a small block of the fine cedar that the craftsman had drilled full of holes, into which they slipped snugly, rather like the bunks aboard submarines in World War II movies.

6 As it turned out, I got the chance to discover that my idea of the cedar block had not been wrong by much. We visited our relative again in the winter. We arrived at night, but first thing in the morning I made straight for the farm and its barn. The shadows under the eaves were too dense to let me spot the sphere from far off. I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder—slick with frost—and climbed carefully up. My hands and feet kept slipping, so my eyes stayed on the rung ahead, and it was not until I was secure at the top that I could look up. The sphere was gone.

7 I was crushed. That object had fascinated me like nothing I had come across in my life; I had even grown to love wasps because of it. I sagged on the ladder and watched my breath eddy around the blank eaves. I’m afraid I pitied myself more than the apparently homeless wasps.

8 But then something snapped me out of my sense of loss: I recalled that I had watched the farmer taking in the purple martin hotel every November, after the birds left. From its spruce appearance when he brought it out in March, it was clear he had cleaned it and repainted it and kept it out of the weather. Of course he would do the same thing for this house, which was even more fragile. I had never mentioned the wasp dwelling to anyone, but now I decided I would go to the farm, introduce myself, and inquire about it. Perhaps I would even be permitted to handle it, or, best of all, learn how to make one myself.

9 I scrambled down the ladder, leaping from the third rung and landing in the frosty salad of tobacco leaves and windswept grass that collected at the foot of the barn wall. I looked down and saw that my left boot had, by no more than an inch, just missed crushing the very thing I was rushing off to seek. There, lying dry and separate on the leaves, was the wasp house.

From NATURE BY DESIGN © 1991 by Bruce Brooks. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Answer 98

Which statement best expresses two central ideas of the passage?

A.
A young boy cannot find a wasp house, and he decides that someone has put it away.
B.
A young boy explores a neighbor’s farm, and he sees a wasp house.
C.
A young boy is fascinated by a wasp house, and he theorizes about its origin and purpose.
D.
A young boy is feeling bored, and he tries to imagine what the inside of a wasp house looks like.
E.
A young boy looks at a wasp house, and he begins to understand how wasps are like birds.