18. Respond to one of the following prompts by writing a well-organized essay. Write your answers in essay format using complete sentences.
a. Write an essay that finishes the sentence "The people of the Middle East have..." with a new
understanding you have about Middle Eastern and South Asian culture. Include supporting
details from the various stories in this unit. You may want to consider the following characters
and stories:
.
• Himli in "Wanted: A Town Without a Crazy" by Muzaffer Igzu
Siham, Ihsan, or Siham's father in "From Behind the Veil" by Dhu'l Nun Ayyoub
• The family, drivers, or police in "Five Hours to Simla" by Anita Desai
• The narrator or his daughter Mini in "The Cabuliwallah" by Rabindranath Tagore
• Sekhar, Sekhar's wife, or the headmaster in "Like the Sun" by R. K. Narayan
b. Write an essay that answers the following question: Are cultures different only in their
details? Discuss the assumptions about men and women, class status, religion, race, or the
body that you encounter in one of the selections in this unit. You may include supporting
details from the stories listed in prompt a. Additionally, you may include supporting details
from the poem "Sweet Like a Crow" by Michael Ondaatje.

Read this paragraph from chapter 5 of the prince. there are, for example, the spartans and the romans. the spartans held athens and thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. the romans, in order to hold capua, carthage, and numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. they wished to hold greece as the spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. so to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. and he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. and whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the florentines. what idea is stressed in the passage? the desire for liberty the establishment of an oligarchy the dismantling of an acquired state the tendency toward rebellion

Listening is also important because you spend more time listening than participating in any other communication activity. in fact, you spend more time listening to others than doing almost anything else. typical americans spend more than 80 percent of any average day communicating with other people l. they spend 45 percent of that communication time listening to others. which sentence states the main idea?

How much time has elapsed from the very beginning of "the memior of the conquistador bernal diaz del castillo" to the end? a. castillo's whole life b. a quarter of an hour c. a few weeks d. a decade