On pages 189-190, in the book If I Stay, Mia's father was in a band, and wrote a song called Waiting for Vengeance. While physically unconscious in the hospital, Mia sings the songs to herself and thinks about how the lyrics apply to her at this point in her life. Below are the lyrics to the song used in the book. Read and analyze each stanza (group of lines) for connections to the plot. How does this song represent what Mia is going through or the choice she has to make? Replace the red lines with notes and connections between Mia and the song (there is an empty line after all the major connections to make), then answer the questions below using complete sentences. Waiting for Vengeance
by Oswald Five-O
Well, what is this? 1
What am I coming to?
And beyond that, what am I going to do?
Now there's blankness
Where once your eyes held the light 5
But that was so long ago
That was last night

Well, what was that?
What's the sound I hear?
It's just my lifetime 10
It's whistling past my ear
And when I look back
Everything seems smaller than life
The way it's been for so long
Since last night 15

Now I'm leaving
Any moment I'll be gone
I think you'll notice
I think you'll wonder what went wrong
I'm not choosing 20
But I'm running out of fight
And this was decided so long ago
It was last night 23

1. While Mia is thinking about this song, she thinks of all the memories attached to it. What is a theme from the book that this supports?
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2. In 5 sentences, how does this song connect to Mia and the events of her life right now? Use evidence from the book and the song to support your response.

When reading a poem closely to interpret its meaning and nuances, what can give you clues about the theme of the poem? athe rhyme schemebthe stanza structurecthe title of the poemd.the name of the poet

Memories of a memory have you ever witnessed something amazing, shocking or surprising and found when describing the event that your story seems to change the more you tell it? have you ever experienced a time when you couldn't really describe something you saw in a way that others could understand? if so, you may understand why some experts think eyewitness testimony is unreliable as evidence in scientific inquiries and trials. new insights into human memory suggest human memories are really a mixture of many non-factual things. first, memory is vague. imagine your room at home or a classroom you see every day. most likely, you could describe the room very generally. you could name the color of the walls, the floors, the decorations. but the image you describe will never be as specific or detailed as if you were looking at the actual room. memory tends to save a blurry image of what we have seen rather than specific details. so when a witness tries to identify someone, her brain may recall that the person was tall, but not be able to say how tall when faced with several tall people. there are lots of different kinds of "tall." second, memory uses general knowledge to fill in gaps. our brains reconstruct events and scenes when we remember something. to do this, our brains use other memories and other stories when there are gaps. for example, one day at a library you go to quite frequently, you witness an argument between a library patron and one of the librarians. later, when telling a friend about the event, your brain may remember a familiar librarian behind the desk rather than the actual participant simply because it is recreating a familiar scene. in effect, your brain is combining memories to you tell the story. third, your memory changes over time. it also changes the more you retell the story. documented cases have shown eyewitnesses adding detail to testimony that could not have been known at the time of the event. research has also shown that the more a witness's account is told, the less accurate it is. you may have noticed this yourself. the next time you are retelling a story, notice what you add, or what your brain wants to add, to the account. you may also notice that you drop certain details from previous tellings of the story. with individual memories all jumbled up with each other, it is hard to believe we ever know anything to be true. did you really break your mother's favorite vase when you were three? was that really your father throwing rocks into the river with you when you were seven? the human brain may be quite remarkable indeed. when it comes to memory, however, we may want to start carrying video cameras if we want to record the true picture. part a and part b below contain one fill-in-the-blank to be used for all three question responses. your complete response must be in the format a, b, c including the letter choice, commas, and a space after the commas. part a: which of the following best explains why memories from childhood are unreliable? fill in blank 1 using a, b, or c. our brains add details and general knowledge to childhood memories. our brains are not as reliable as video cameras are. our brains create new stories to make the past more interesting. part b select one quotation from the text that supports your answer to part a. add your selection to blank 1 using e, f, or g. but the image you describe will never be as specific or detailed as if you were looking at the actual room. when a witness tries to identify someone, her brain may recall that the person was tall, but not be able to say how tall. to do this, our brains use other memories and other stories when there are gaps. select one quotation from the text that supports your answer to part a. add your selection to blank 1 using h, i, or j. documented cases have shown eyewitnesses adding detail to testimony that could not have been known at the time of the event. with individual memories all jumbled up with each other, it is hard to believe we ever know anything to be true. when it comes to memory, however, we may want to start carrying video cameras if we want to record the true picture answer for blank 1:

Thomas paine's common sense convicted colonists to