Which of the following is a noun phrase?

the massive labrador retriever
walked quickly
baked all afternoon
two months ago

You are reading an informational text for english class, and you find a lot of words you don't know. your teacher says you don't need to look up all of them in the dictionary, only the ones you need to get the main point of the text. how could text features you figure out which words to look up?

Which pair of words has similar denotation but different connotations?

Read this excerpt from i never had it made. "it's all that ought to count," he replied. "but it isn't. maybe one of these days it will be all that counts. that is one of the reasons i've got you here, robinson. if you're a good enough man, we can make this a start in the right direction. but let me tell you, it's going to take an awful lot of courage." he was back to the crossroads question that made me start to get angry minutes earlier. he asked it slowly and with great care. "have you got the guts to play the game no matter what happens? " "i think i can play the game, mr. rickey," i said. the next few minutes were tough. branch rickey had to make absolutely sure that i knew what i would face. beanballs would be thrown at me. i would be called the kind of names which would hurt and infuriate any man. i would be physically attacked. could i take all of this and control my temper, remain steadfastly loyal to our ultimate aim? which is the central idea of this excerpt?