Three days after watching The Ed Sullivan Show, my mother told me what my schedule would be for piano lessons and piano practice. She had talked to Mr. Chong, who lived on the first floor of our apartment building. Mr. Chong was a retired piano teacher and my mother had traded housecleaning services for weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on every day, two hours a day, from four until six. When my mother told me this, I felt as though I had been sent to hell. I whined and then kicked my foot a little when I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Why don't you like me the way I am? I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn't go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!" I cried.

My mother slapped me. "Who ask you be genius?" she shouted. "Only ask you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!"

"So ungrateful," I heard her mutter in Chinese, "If she had as much talent as she has temper, she would be famous now."

Which statement best explains the conflict revealed in the passage?

The conflict is internal within the narrator, who has to choose between playing music and going on television.
The conflict is internal within the narrator’s mother, who cannot decide whether her daughter is talented or not.
The conflict is external and takes place between the narrator and her mother over whether the narrator will learn to play piano.
The conflict is external and takes place between the narrator’s mother and Mr. Chong over the payment for the narrator’s piano lessons.

The conflict is external and takes place between the narrator and her mother over whether the narrator will learn to play piano.

Explanation:

In literary terms, a conflict occurs when there is a struggle between two opposing forces. It causes tension in a story and also ignites the curiosity and attention of readers. Conflict could be internal or external. Internal conflict occurs within a person. The person might be struggling to overcome a dilemma or weakness. External conflict creates tension between a character and another character or element.

External conflict occurs in the story above because the narrator does not agree with her mother on going to learn how to play the piano.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)