Our mountain regions are unique and beautiful places. we must preserve them for future generations. one of the most serious threats to our mountains is ridgetop development. large housing developments built on steep slopes and along mountain ridges are unsightly. also, they adversely affect the scenic views that draw tourists to our region each year. who wants to drive to the mountains to see not the lovely tree-covered outline of the gently sloping mountain ridges against the sky, but rows of houses jutting from the ridges and slopes with little or no tree cover between them? with tourism as the biggest industry in our area, maintaining our scenic ridgelines is crucial to continued economic success here.

ridgetop development not only detracts from scenic mountain views and threatens our area’s top industry, it also harms the environment. stripping large areas to create multiple building sites removes the trees and other plants. these resources provide natural erosion barriers on steep slopes. large housing developments on ridges often increase erosion and runoff into streams and rivers.

what is the purpose of this essay?

to describe the beautification of mountain ridges and beaches
to chronicle the growth of the economy due to ridgetop tourism
to clarify the role of the city council in protecting the environment
to expose the environmental threats posed by ridgetop development

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.

Fill in the began as a rejection of classicism. (choose the best answer) a. realism b. confucianism c. romanticism d. the information age

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.