The Bridge "Please clean up the clothes on your bedroom floor before Samantha gets here," shouted Mom from downstairs. I grabbed a handful of clothes and stuffed them into my laundry basket, I tugged at the comforter on top of my bed, so we would have a place to sit, and then quickly printed several pictures of the bridge we agreed to replicate for our toothpick sculpture. Just as I began clearing a spot on my desk, I heard the doorbell ring.
Samantha was slumped over a half-built bridge, trying to gather the toothpicks she'd dropped. I welcomed her in, and we quickly settled into my room, organizing a workspace while gathering glue, tape, and scissors. I looked at her bridge carefully; it was nice of Samantha to get a head start on our bridge, but it didn't look anything like the bridge we had been assigned to build.
"Did you look at any pictures when you started building?" I asked, starting to feel annoyed.
"No, my brother and I were bored, so we just dove in and started gluing toothpicks together. I think it's a pretty good start, don't you?" Samantha shrugged.
"Well, it doesn't look anything like the bridge we were assigned, so I am just trying to figure out how we are going to make the necessary changes. Look at these pictures. Do you see how our bridge is supposed to have six triangles across the bottom?" I began to explain while handing the photos to Samantha.
I took a deep breath and started laying out toothpicks to create the correct triangular shapes; once Samantha realized what I was doing, she joined in. We started cutting, taping, and gluing, and before we realized it, we had a brand-new bridge, and it was almost complete. When the last toothpick was attached, we gently placed the bridge in a box to dry. I handed Samantha her half-built bridge along with a smile, feeling relieved that she wasn't upset that we had to start over.
"It looks great!" Samantha replied as she tossed her half-built bridge in my trash can. "Thanks for being so organized; our teacher will surely be impressed."
I walked Samantha to the door and reassured her that I wouldn't forget to bring the bridge to school the next day. I smiled as I glanced at our bridge; it was perfect.

Which of these best summarizes the first paragraph?
A.
The narrator greets Samantha at the door and tries to figure out why the toothpick sculpture doesn't look anything like their assigned bridge.
B.
The narrator hears Mom shout from downstairs, so he or she cleans up the clothes on the bedroom floor and then hears the doorbell ring.
C.
While waiting for Samantha to arrive, the narrator cleans his or her room and prints photos to prepare for the toothpick sculpture.
D.
While waiting for Samantha to arrive, the narrator stuffs clothes in a laundry basket and straightens the comforter so they have a place to sit.

by: nita twenty thousand leagues under the sea some time ago, i decided to read twenty thousand leagues under the sea, by jules verne. i figured that because it was so well known it must be an extremely interesting book. in addition, it was science fiction, the one area that i was always interested. my assumption was only partially correct, for i only was to a degree interested in the piece of writing. when jules verne was writing this book, he must have been reading some incredibly dull science book the day before, for that was what the book was written as.  

the style of writing was utterly against my tastes, and though the plot was moderately interesting, the style of writing really ruined it. often, the author will trail off describing some marine animal for pages at a time. two entire chapters were almost entirely this! however, the setting and characters of the story seemed to be well thought out. nevertheless, 20,000 leagues under the sea was an extremely tedious volume. when the story was introduced, jules verne described m. aronnax, the main character, whose love for marine biology was more important than anything else to him did.  

this immediately led to the international crisis about a bizarre aquatic creature, which immediately dragged m. aronnax into the action. due to his expertise on the matter, the public expected pierre to be the one to solve this mystery. m. aronnax, under all this pressure, concluded that the animal was to be called the narwhale. at first, the matter was taken lightly, and only expert scientists were involved. however, when this animal began to become a threat to all ships in the water, the military took the issue into its own hands.  

it promptly fitted a frigate, the abraham lincoln, to destroy the beast, and invited pierre to join them, for his science capabilities. for many months they searched, but could not find this narwhale anywhere. when they found it, it attacked the ship, disabling it, and sending m. aronnax, ned land (a harpooner) and conseil (servant of pierre) overboard. soon, the three were guests in the narwhale, now known to be a ship, the nautilus, commanded by captain nemo. during the stay aboard the nautilus, pierre conseil and ned encounter and discover many wonderful and interesting facts from the sea. often, they would accompany the captain in an under water expedition.  

several of these excursions were to hunt, and others were simply to explore a submarine region. one of the times when the purpose was just to investigate an underwater region, captain nemo and m. aronnax explored the lost city of atlantis. on a separate occasion, pierre found that there was a supply of coal underwater that the nautilus used as a source of fuel. in addition to underwater excursions, the nautilus itself was on a round the world journey, which accounted for the most exiting time of the book. this was when captain nemo was attempting to access the south pole.  

that meant passing the great ice barrier, and surviving with very little air. during this rather long voyage, the submarine gets wedged between two icebergs, and is almost crushed! to add to this, the inhabitants of the nautilus almost die of suffocation from the lack of air. finally, at the end of the book, the three friends narrowly escape that nautilus.  

this all occurs during the maelstrom, which is a deadly storm, which makes the escape so daring. at the end, the three friends end up in a fisherman's shack, not knowing how they arrived, for they were knocked unconscious. that is how the events in the story twenty thousand leagues under the sea took place. the main character in this book was an extremely well recognized marine biologist named m. pierre aronnax. m. aronnax is one who gets the most benefit throughout the course of the book. pierre was always curious, which often got in the way of following his instincts and good judgment.  

also, he sometimes talked to himself! in addition, his faithful servant, conseil, follows his master during all of his adventures. conseil never really said much, and the role he played was one of a calm and humble person. another character of importance was ned land, the most well known harpooner of all his time. this man proved himself to be very useful when the threesome attempt to escape the nautilus. on the other hand, ned land was always quick tempered, and free willed.  

these qualities almost got many people killed many times during the book. the next most important character and perhaps the most outlandish one of all was captain nemo. note that this was not his real name, however, the actual name was never given in the book. captain nemo was forever strict and secretive to everyone. he never showed any emotion on his face, and never showed any bodily expressions in any way except when he was in extreme anguish. the setting that the story took place in was quite interesting.  

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