What is the theme of “Taking the Plunge”? How does the theme emerge and develop over the course of the passage? Use evidence from the text to support your response. Your response should be at least three complete paragraphs. (The story is in the photos)

Which line in this excerpt from the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald contains a simile? about half way between west egg and new york the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. this is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight.

Welcome to the vocabulary assessment. by connecting with words in a more interactive way, through a graphic organizer that includes your own ideas, we hope you will learn new vocabulary strategies to integrate into your course work and your everyday life. objectives: use a variety of techniques to acquire a range of words determine, clarify, and illustrate the meaning of unfamiliar words to ensure that you properly and successfully complete the vocabulary assessment, do the following: complete the assessment using the passage provided. select a word from the passage, and identify/create each of the following for that word: denotation connotations synonyms antonyms affixes the sentence from the passage where the word appears an original sentence using the word a memory trick type your responses in the appropriate boxes. after you have typed your responses, print your graphic organizer and submit it to your teacher. be careful not to refresh the page before printing, as some browsers will not save your work. passage from "the pit and the pendulum" by edgar allan poe very suddenly there came back to my soul motion and sound—the tumultuous motion of the heart, and in my ears the sound of its beating. then a pause in which all is blank. then again sound, and motion, and touch, a tingling sensation pervading my frame. then the mere consciousness of existence, without thought, a condition which lasted long. then, very suddenly, thought, and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state. then a strong desire to lapse into insensibility. then a rushing revival of soul and a successful effort to move. and now a full memory of the trial, of the judges, of the sable draperies, of the sentence, of the sickness, of the swoon. then entire forgetfulness of all that followed; of all that a later day and much earnestness of endeavor have enabled me vaguely to recall.

Do you think that the american culture has defined what “normal” is and so our perception of chris mccandless is skewed based on that?