What topic is ivan ilyich thinking about in this excerpt from leo tolstoy’s the death of ivan ilyich? but suddenly in the midst of those proceedings the pain in his side, regardless of the stage the proceedings had reached, would begin its own gnawing work. ivan ilyich would turn his attention to it and try to drive the thought of it away, but without success. it would come and stand before him and look at him, and he would be petrified and the light would die out of his eyes, and he would again begin asking himself whether it alone was true.

Read the passage, then answer the question that follows. no one could have seen it at the time, but the invention of beet sugar was not just a challenge to cane. it was a hint—just a glimpse, like a twist that comes about two thirds of the way through a movie—that the end of the age of sugar was in sight. for beet sugar showed that in order to create that perfect sweetness you did not need slaves, you did not need plantations, in fact you did not even need cane. beet sugar was a foreshadowing of what we have today: the age of science, in which sweetness is a product of chemistry, not whips. in 1854 only 11 percent of world sugar production came from beets. by 1899 the percentage had risen to about 65 percent. and beet sugar was just the first challenge to cane. by 1879 chemists discovered saccharine—a laboratory-created substance that is several hundred times sweeter than natural sugar. today the sweeteners used in the foods you eat may come from corn (high-fructose corn syrup), from fruit (fructose), or directly from the lab (for example, aspartame, invented in 1965, or sucralose—splenda—created in 1976). brazil is the land that imported more africans than any other to work on sugar plantations, and in brazil the soil is still perfect for sugar. cane grows in brazil today, but not always for sugar. instead, cane is often used to create ethanol, much as corn farmers in america now convert their harvest into fuel. –sugar changed the world, marc aronson and marina budhos how does this passage support the claim that sugar was tied to the struggle for freedom? it shows that the invention of beet sugar created competition for cane sugar. it shows that technology had a role in changing how we sweeten our foods. it shows that the beet sugar trade provided jobs for formerly enslaved workers. it shows that sweeteners did not need to be the product of sugar plantations and slavery.

Which of the following best describes how the majority of content decisions are made by the media?

Refer to explorations in literature for a complete version of the text. in “letter from birmingham jail,” martin luther king, jr., presents the idea that american history includes african americans, too; that is, african americans can claim the same historical heritage as white americans. at the time, this was a radical idea. how does king develop this theme? select each correct answer. he points out the many ways that african americans have contributed to the culture of america. he describes how african americans were present “before plymouth rock” and through many key moments in american history. he argues that african americans would have participated in more events of american history if white americans had been willing to include them. he makes connections between the american fight for independence from britain and the civil rights movement.