Read the excerpt from “Raymond's Run.” But once I spread my fingers in the dirt and crouch over the Get on Your Mark, the dream goes and I am solid again and am telling myself, Squeaky you must win, you must win, you are the fastest thing in the world, you can even beat your father up Amsterdam if you really try. And then I feel my weight coming back just behind my knees then down to my feet then into the earth and the pistol shot explodes in my blood and I am off and weightless again, flying past the other runners, my arms pumping up and down and the whole world is quiet except for the crunch as I zoom over the gravel in the track.

Which theme is shown most clearly in this excerpt?

Dreaming can be a distraction from achieving goals.
Reality can often times seem like a dream.
Winning is proof that a person has worked hard.
Success is possible if one truly believes in oneself.

Match the definition to the word for a better understanding of the paragraph. 1 money does not buy happiness or security. 2john ringling, one of the five brothers of the ringling brothers circus, started out in 1884 with a trained horse and a performing bear. 3for over forty years, he worked hard at the family enterprise, bought up smaller circuses, and imported new acts. 4in the 1920s, he was rated as one of the world's wealthiest men and owned every sizable circus in the country. 5over 5,000 people were on his payroll, and over 240 railroad cars were in his retinue each time the circus moved. 6at the time of his death, however, he was a nervous, unhappy man; he was also bankrupt and beset by lawsuits. 7his carefully built circus empire passed into alien hands. 8all those years of work had turned to dust. 1. business organization alien 2. group beset 3. without funds to pay debts retinue 4. troubled or harassed enterprise 5. strange; belonging to another person, place, country, or thing bankrupt

The question below refers to the selection “ozymandias” by percy bysshe shelley. the traveler seems to believe that — a. monuments are eternal b. the passage of time is necessary and inevitable c. we must preserve relics of past civilizations d. even the greatest works are destroyed by time

Item 7 shakespeare often puts the audience in a situation where they know more than one of the characters does. how does shakespeare increase the tension in the four-lovers story line by giving the audience information that one or more of the characters does not have? the audience knows that hermia’s father really approves of lysander and there is no need for hermia and lysander to run away. this knowledge builds tension because the audience wonders if hermia and lysander’s relationship will survive a night in the woods. the audience knows that helena really hates hermia and wants to hurt her. this knowledge builds tension when helena tells demetrius of hermia’s plan to run away because the audience wonders if hermia will be caught and punished. the audience knows that lysander and demetrius are under the spell, but helena and hermia do not. this knowledge builds tension and makes the audience eager to see what will happen next. the audience knows that oberon is observing the lovers, but the lovers do not know. this knowledge builds tension because oberon falls in love with helena and decides to become a human so he can marry her.