I'm cooked. Here it is, the day of the 11th annual Motorola Marathon. I'm all prepared to scam the good folks who put on this great community event, and they go out and make their race cheater-proof. I ask you, is that fair? This was to be my one shot at winning a marathon without actually running a marathon. Figured I'd duck out from behind a Port-a-potty or the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue and make a mad dash for the finish line. The months of rigorous training have always been a sticking point with me, and then there's that 26.2-mile jaunt. The .2 part I can handle.

What is the narrator's mood in this passage?

a.
serious and competitive

b.
argumentative and aggressive

c.
informal and playful

d.
tired and troubled

Which of the following is a good strategy for finding the meaning of an unfamiliar word? (5 points) put the book down and do something else for at least 30 minutes. count the syllables in the word and find others that are similar in length. make inferences about the meaning based on the words around it. keep reading past that word so that you can continue with the story.

Read this excerpt from the call of the wild by jack london. the encouragement buck gave the rebels led them into all kinds of petty misdemeanors. no more was spitz a leader greatly to be feared. the old awe departed, and they grew equal to challenging his authority. pike robbed him of half a fish one night, and gulped it down under the protection of buck. another night dub and joe fought spitz and made him forego the punishment they deserved. and even billee, the good-natured, was less good-natured, and whined not half so placatingly as in former days. buck never came near spitz without snarling and bristling menacingly. in fact, his conduct approached that of a bully, and he was given to swaggering up and down before spitz's very nose. who is the antagonist in this excerpt? buck is the antagonist because he has started a rebellion. spitz is the antagonist because the others are rebelling against his leadership. dub and joe are the antagonists because they attack spitz. billee is the antagonist because he refuses to cooperate with the others.

Micah wrote the following argument: our city should start a garden lottery that would award winners a free plot of land in one of the city’s abandoned lots to encourage community gardening. community gardening brings many benefits to a community, including a sense of belonging and opportunities to meet new people. gardening creates personal bonds between people of all ages. as a result, people feel connected to their neighbors, and crime decreases. which relationship does the phrase “as a result” clarify? a. the relationship between the claim that crime will decrease and the reason that community gardens foster a sense of community togetherness b. the relationship between the claim that community gardens bring many benefits to a community and the reason that people feel more connected to their neighbors c. the relationship between the claim that gardening creates bonds between people and the reason that people feel connected to their neighbors and crime decreases d. the relationship between the claim that free plots of land should be raffled in a lottery for community gardening and the reason that, as a result, neighbors will communicate more, and crime will decrease