In "To Build a Fire," the main character faces two types of conflict. The first conflict is an external conflict. It is his struggle to survive in the harsh cold of his environment. The second conflict is an internal one. In this conflict, the man must face his own foolishness after he chooses to ignore the advice of the "old-timer" and take deadly risks. Which of these two conflicts is more important to the plot of the story?

To improve your understanding of an informational text, the question you should ask yourself as you read is: do i agree with what the author says in this text? who assigned me to read this text? what details in the text are unclear to me? what other texts has this author written?

Read this excerpt from the exposition in "the monkey's paw." father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire. what is one piece of information you can infer about the story from this sentence? a. the father in the story is possessed, so he probably says insane things a lot. b. the woman in the story is knitting, so the characters probably don't have good clothes to wear. c. the father is playing chess with the son, but the son is not old enough to know the rules. d. since the father likes taking risks in a game, he might like taking risks in life as well.

When the telephone rings incessantly, what is it that the men want to have happen? they want the phone to be answered because it is jangling their nerves. they want mr. frank to go to the office and answer it because they are afraid it might be bad news. they want mr. frank to go to the office because they think it might be miep. they want mr frank to ignore the phone.